In a recent interview regarding the Covid-19 pandemic, and the emotions that pop up due to our stay-at-home response, acclaimed author Glennon Doyle said that “One of the reasons we all want to get online and do something right now is because we want to get away.”
We’ve been so programmed to believe that we must produce and achieve at all times that we feel like we can’t just sit and be who we are for a bit. We have to constantly improve and accomplish. Heck, there’s that story circulating of how Sir Isaac Newton developed calculus and the theory of gravity during his quarantine from the Bubonic plague, so the message could be taken that it’s only a loser who doesn’t use this time to at least create a new successful online business, or build the perfect summer body. That’s a lot of pressure added onto the anxiety that’s already there from this pandemic. But when taken away from our “fast-paced” jobs and schools, it’s hard to allow ourselves to get off of the hamster wheel for a bit, and just be still. That’s why even if we aren’t discovering gravity, or perfecting the living room burpee squat thrust, then we’re obsessively binge-watching some godawful docuseries about an animal abuser, and binge-eating 20 times a day, all to keep up with the drive to go-go-go.
This reminds me of the quote, we are not human doings, we are human beings. What if we took this time to practice more of just being human, rather than escaping so much by feeling the need to be massively productive? Yes, it’s great to be creative, and I’m a big fan of taking action rather than getting trapped into over-thinking, but I can’t help but wonder if this situation we are all dealing with is also a great opportunity to stand still, get back to being present, take a break from that monster called “fast-paced” and just feel like human beings.
Like a Fox! 