Everyone Is Stressed Out of Their Minds

Okay, that’s a dramatic title.

But doesn’t that seem true? Doesn’t that feel true?

Perhaps like me, you’re witnessing a lot of stress rising to the surface. We may feel this inside ourselves or see it in those around us. We need empathy to care for the stress inside ourselves and those we love. This is important. At the very same time, there are many occasions for burnout or frustration.

Some people are carrying particularly painful experiences at the moment — difficult emotions of grief, financial downfall, illness, challenges in making decisions about schooling and public events, and much more.

And at the very same time…

Collective, near-universal stress seems to be rising too.

This is what I suspect is happening: We all got a bit more normality in our lives, and that made us feel safer and more supported to feel our fuller range of emotions from 2020.

“It’s a COVID hangover,” someone said to me yesterday.

Exactly. That’s it, exactly.

–Renee Roederer