COVID Reentry Anxiety?

Maybe this meditation will help you put things into perspective.

Photo by engin akyurt on Unsplash

As we shift into a new season with the pandemic — things are opening back up, infections are down, vaccinations are up — people may be experiencing a huge range of emotions around what it means to “get back to normal” in a time that still doesn’t feel very normal. In this guided meditation, we take the time to explore the mixed emotions this time may bring and allow ourselves to feel the way we feel.

I’m a licensed mental health counselor who enjoys sharing mindful meditations and information about mindfulness. Below is a transcript of a meditation I led on this topic, and at the end of the article, you’ll find a link to the meditation video. Give it a try and see what happens.

Meditation Transcript

I’ll invite you to move to start with. I sit in this chair most of the day. My posture is terrible, but meditation gives me time to be a little bit more intentional about how I sit and how I move. So I’ll invite you to take this opportunity to listen to what your body needs in this moment and move it accordingly.

If you’d like to close your eyes, you’re welcome to do that. It’s also fine to have them open. Shift your way into a posture that is intentional. Sitting down, lying down, standing. Whatever you need to do.

However it is that your body is positioned, take a moment to notice your connection with whatever is holding you up, whether that’s the ground, a piece of furniture.

It’s important to be able to have that sense of grounding and anchoring especially when things are shifting around us. And, when we think about it, aren’t they shifting all the time? But sometimes we notice it more than other times.

We can begin to contemplate what “reentry” means for us as we consider a shift from being in the pandemic, from being closed in and cloistered and protected in our safe little units whatever they were whatever they maybe still are.

Some people alone and trying to connect with others in virtual ways from a distance. Others sharing space with family or friends over a long period.

Things are starting to shift. COVID infection rates are down and vaccination rates are up. And whether…