Examples would be when someone is given a diagnosis of cancer, or when your mind goes to what life might be like when your parents die.
With Covid-19, with this virus we cannot see, the anticipatory grief is heightened by our imaginations of what is coming next. Our imaginations of worst case scenarios and focusing on them, creates intense anxiety. We live in a heightened space of feeling our safety is threatened.
Collectively we are feeling anticipatory grief. Our lives will go back to normal, but will that new normal be. Just like after 9/11, we returned to flying and how we navigate an airport and airline travel changed forever. Collectively we our grieving imagined losses of how we do things.
How to Manage This
- Stay present. How? Look at your hands. Flex your fingers. See the things in the room where you are now. Name them.
- List the Facts- what you know is present. Coronavirus is present. People you love are present.
- Recognize what you control and what you don’t. Focus on things you can control. You are present to affect safety, love, happiness in your life and the lives of others. You can practice safety measure to prevent catching the virus and the spread of it. You can’t control the virus being present at this moment.
- Breathe- allow your body to calm, heart rate to slow, mind to clear.
You may also like to read, “Changing Moods and Emotions, Part 1”
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Anticipatory Grief!https://pixabay.com/photos/traffic-light-traffic-signal-514932/
