I Don’t Want to Come Out of My Cave!

“It’s warm and cozy, and so comfortable in here.”

As a long winter of discontent comes to a faltering close, and the vaccine rollout looks promising, we are faced with an adaptation. Where once we were challenged to withdraw, do less and constrict, now we are dealing with its reverse: the task of making our lives bigger. Clothing doesn’t fit, workouts have gone by the way side and isolation has increased. All of sudden, life as it was might not so rosy. 

This is bringing up anxiety for a lot of people. Why? Because adapting can be hard. We may like trying new things or going on adventures, but we also like consistency. 

And d’you know what else we like? Doing things on our terms. Most of us aren’t fans of being told what to do. If we can pick our new experiences, then great. But if they are foisted on us, we react with resistance, reluctance and a fair amount of grumbling. 

But emerging from the cave is a very different process than the entering of our hibernation. 

This time there’s more choice. This is a wonderful opportunity for us to examine what we want to bring back into our lives. Do you know how many people have said to me, guiltily, with a sideways glance, “You know, I feel terrible saying this, but I actually really enjoyed the lockdown.” Now, I’m not saying for a second that this hasn’t been a time of tragedy for hundreds of thousands of people dealing with the reality of unemployment, sickness or death. But it’s also been a time of self-reflection, and making more of doing less. Zero commute: check. Meditation: check. Creative activities: check. 

So tell me, why on earth would we go back to life as ‘normal’ if that’s not something that we want, nor enjoy? While there are certain activities we must re-engage in, there’s a lot that we can choose not to include again. 

What’s more, we get to pace this. Of course it’s anxiety-provoking re-entering such an uncertain world. But we have some element of choice in how we construct our lives - when we’ll travel, when we’ll go back to group exercise, when we’ll hold parties and more. We can take this step by step, accustomizing to each new level that we undertake. From that perspective, we can really use this time as an opportunity to create more of what we want in life: we become the creator rather than the passive participant. And that’s an exciting place to be.