01/11/2020
NATURAL RESPONSE TO NATURAL DISASTER
The pandemic is a natural disaster, with repercussions in other areas as well - social relationships, business, employment, family. It is unusual because it has levels of natural, social, and cultural disaster.
This is a model I have developed in my work over the years as a Trauma Psychologist to help understand the natural journey through such an event(s).
1. GROPING - you are looking for solutions. The old ones don't work any more. It can feel like darkness overtakes all.
2. GRIPING - life is upset, and you are upset. We/you complain, get angry, talk about the way it was (as if it "should" be that way always). There's a sense we "deserve" life the way it was.
3. GRIEVING - the realization of loss begins to seep in. The natural response to loss is grief. Often, grief seems like depression, and if it becomes "stuck", it can become clinical depression. However, grieving is different. It is a natural stage of movement in which you stop fighting the way it is, and begin to mourn the losses you have experienced. With bigger or multiple losses, naturally this grieving process can feel overwhelming.
4. RE-GROUPING. You catch your breath, take inventory of what is good and useful that is still in your life, and begin to have some hope. There is a realization that survival is an option, and a new commitment to life as it is now. Acceptance.
5. GROUPING. We pull together on the inside, and begin to also pull together resources around us - whether friends, family, things you believe in, new hobbies or projects, pets. You learn to let the "good stuff in."
6. GRACE-ING. Grace as an active verb means moving smoothly through life in a pleasing manner. It includes acceptance, and compassion and mercy toward oneself and others. It may also relate to your trust of God, or a sense of essential benevolence in the universe. We "put things together" in a new way and move forward without resistance, but rather in a fluid, open way of being "in spite of things". Grace-ing includes taking our spiritual or psychological labors back to those around us.
