Giving Our Control Over To Things Like The Pandemic

After these past several months, we have become very accustomed to the life we are all living in this quarantined world. When speaking for myself, I can admit that it is going on a lot longer than I really thought it would. If you had asked me back in March about mask wearing, I would had sworn up and down, that we would most certainly be done with masks come July or August. Now we all see that that is not the case.

The pandemic does have a lot of control over society, and the things we do that we usually would consider “normal.” But how powerful is it over us? How much of it can take over our lives, make us prisoners right in our own usual world?

When we take a look at what’s going on in a perspective that revolves around the subject of mental health, there are different views to take on it. I remember one thing that I started to learn in my own recovery and treatment was that we should never hand over our own control into the hands of someone else. Especially someone very toxic.

Freedom is a powerful gift, and we don’t have to be an inmate in a prison to learn what it feels like to be out of one’s own control. Any type of lost freedom can be a devastating hit to us mentally, and emotionally, and it can be a type of painful hit which can be very hard to deal with, and can remain difficult even when we begin our path back to a state of freedom.

I have tried my best to remain extremely vigilant during this time of quarantine. I have actually made it a point to stay observant of the people and the things within this new form of life. I have been fascinated with the many different ways in which we approach the coronavirus pandemic.

I noticed that a lot of this illness has caused widespread fright amongst many people. And the one factor that seems to remain over us is that feeling of being out of control. That feeling of the unknown is one of the biggest pieces of our control, and whether or not we can maintain our own reasonable control over ourselves. We feel our most out of control when we are dealing with things that we don’t understand or are not familiar with.

When I think about what to write, I ponder about thinking just how should I approach the tougher changes that we are all facing today. I have grown over these past few years to learn and understand that in mental health, we have to learn that our stress and anxiety can not be at the result of other people’s hands, or at others doing.

We have to guard our own control, and we cannot allow other people or things to overtake control of us. Because normally when that happens, it’s an entirely negative scene, which results in our worst emotions flooding us. It is then seemingly too late for us to then realize that we are losing our emotional control.

That entire point makes me think of life right now. I see many people stressing and anguished over what they perceive to be a life that is affected negatively from the pandemic more than it really is. But I continue to wonder just how tough life is for now? I see many stressing with drama, while not even being the ones who are affected health wise, or financial wise in a direct manner. Then what are those particular ones stressing out about? I’m not really sure.

For anyone who is a regular reader of mine, you have seen the idea that I once again present right here. I still have a philosophy that states that these times we are in can be looked upon in a different way. In a way that doesn’t hand over our emotional control to an idea of claim that isn’t even realistic.

What I mean by all of this, is first, don’t stress in dramatic ways if intentions are not there that make a little bit of sense. If you are healthy and not in financial struggles from covid 19 and neither are your loved ones, then you can appreciate this time, for all its peace and quiet, and lack of deadlines and alarm clocks. It’s extra time with your kids, the type of extra time that most of the past several generations of parents have not had the fortune of having.

For those who spend their time wishing away this life being “stuck” at home, and back into the rat race, stop and use mindfulness. Realize that when all this is said and done, and our lifestyles go back to the way they were before, will you then stop and dwell on how you miss how quiet and peaceful it was to stay at home, to see less traffic, and to sleep more?

It’s a theory I continue to look into. I guess I will never truly have a definitive answer, until this pandemic is really over.

MICHAEL PATANELLA