Covid Challenges the Norm!

In these times, more than ever before, everyone is talking about Well Being: both social and emotional. Let’s have a look, at Sophie’s story.

Sophie is the wife of a doctor who happens to be a front liner in these unprecedented times. She is also a teacher and the mother of an eight year old girl named Lisa. Sophie has had her world catapulted in a matter of days since the first time that schools closed their doors and went online. In fact, she had a dual role in this situation. Whilst she had to take care of her daughter during her online schooling, she had to prepare online lessons for her class. At the same time, her husband Michael decided to stay at the hospital 24/7 which meant that she could no longer share the house responsibilities with him. Since they got married, ten years before, this was the first time that Michael did not return home from work after long shifts. It was an uneasy unusual situation.

Sophie had to face a new situation with new challenges.

Her self-esteem was always close to inexistent. She always had the tendency to depend on others as a first response to arising difficulties. This time round she was really on her own. She took a couple of deep breaths and thought about other minor situations where she was triumphant. She tried to associate that good feel factor with this situation. That same positive thought gave her the courage needed to pull up her socks and move on. She needed to act upon the situation and quick.

What makes her the Sophie that she is nowadays?

Previous experiences all contribute to her cultural, social and emotional baggage. When she focused on her achievements, she could only look forward and even though in certain circumstances, the future might have not been as clear, she could still find enough stamina and motivation to plan ahead and move forward. She thought of the numerous sessions she had had with her life-coach in the previous years. This was yet another situation to put to the test what she had learnt throughout both the sessions and life experience itself.

Every single difficulty that she had overcome had contributed to her own personal growth as she was forced to keep physically active whilst she kept learning new skills. In fact, whilst teaching, she had also followed a course in play therapy to be able to help children with anger issues. She often met a good number of these children and she had also started putting the theory to good practice.

This doesn’t mean that there weren’t bad times for Sophie. She had moments of despair especially when Lisa kept asking questions about why dad was not coming back home from work as well as other endless questions about the reasons why schools were closed and why she couldn’t visit her grandparents any longer. Before Covid, when Sophie wanted to have her free sane moments, Michael would supervise Lisa while Sophie would meet her girlfriends over a cup of coffee or sometimes a nice glass of red wine. This social aspect was once again now gone. She couldn’t even bother to check her Instagram or Facebook account. She was way overwhelmed with lesson planning and meticulous preparation especially now that the parents of the children in her class were observing her lessons as well. At times, her low self-esteem issues would kick in but she tried to remind herself of the journey she had undergone. She had been through so many tests. This was just another one. Moments of despair were natural to all in such circumstances. But she kept hoping for the best.

She embraced the situation and she managed to notice the positive in that to. She was seeing Lisa closer to her than ever before. Lisa was growing up so fast. She had somehow found more time to prepare home-made meals from scratch and Lisa was loving the time they spent together. When Sophie would be tired in the evenings, she would still find the energy for crafts and drawings with her daughter. This time was indeed priceless and when she would be saddened by the thought that Michael was indeed missing all this, she would grab her phone and start taking as many photos as she possibly could. She would then inundate his Whatsapp with these pictures. She was sure she could make him smile. Without any exchange of words, this was another way of telling him that they were missing him and that they both loved him dearly.

Be like Sophie.

Embrace life as it comes.

Make the most out of your days.

See every situation as an opportunity.

Envision every obstacle as a possibility.

Let go of the bad past experiences.

Capture the moment of infinite beautiful possibilities.