0n April 6th, 2021 I completed a follow up appointment with mental health about my post-covid recovery anxieties. Radical acceptance of my medical situation helped relieve some of the anxiety I was experiencing relative to simple daily tasks such as personal hygiene and to going to sleep. Radical acceptance coupled with physical care have greatly improved my overall quality of post-covid life. I suspect that holds true for most covid patients.
Time and love heals all! As I have become more active my thoughts now focused more on my relationships with my family, friends, and community. Previously, I was more focused on myself and my recovery. It was strictly about doing the things and getting help with the things that made me feel better. But, as I became less helpless and more mobile I developed relationship anxieties. How will people react to me, what will they think, will I be treated differently or the same? Lots of questions and unfounded concerns.
There is no doubt in my mind, my covid ordeal has forever changed me. Things that were once so important are now less so. What has become more important is time and balance in my life. This is not to say, that I do not consider things in my pre-covid life important, but they are not my priority. So how do you navigate this new world? The first and probably most important step is to recognize the impact of cognitive distortions on our relationships.
Cognitive distortions are our minds attempt to convince us that something is true when it isn’t. We often use these false perceptions or thoughts to reinforce negative thinking or emotions which don’t reflect reality. We convince ourselves they are true because they sound rational and accurate. However, they really only serve to keep us feeling bad about ourselves. At the top of this blog I posted a list of 10 cognitive distortions adapted from the book entitled Feeling Good by David Morrow. The struggle remaining is to make defeating these a habit. What maybe more important in this process is what we have done today than rather what we will do tomorrow.
