The Pandemic's Harvest

The pandemic is changing again. And for once... maybe?... for the better.

Of course, we’re not out of the woods yet, with new variants and still-high numbers. But whether you’ve been vaccinated yet or not, you don’t have to be a mindfulness expert to notice the shift in our national mood, and maybe in your own too.

I want to suggest that these months of transition are a uniquely valuable time. Yes, they are awkward, hopeful, anxious, and more, all at once. But they are also a time for harvest.

We’ve all been challenged in the past year. Collectively, we’ve experienced loss, anxiety, isolation, grief, boredom, anger, fear—you name it, really. Yet we have also seen our own resilience, and that of others. We’ve grown in ways we didn’t want to grow. As much as we have shut down, there are also ways in which we’ve opened up.

Now is the right time to begin to gather and integrate some of the unwanted lessons of the past year. When things were tougher, it might have been too difficult--and it might be too difficult for you now, in which case, don’t rush! But when things get easier, we might want to just leave all of this behind. So right now could be your best opportunity to gather in some of the fruits of the Covid year. Here are a few prompts to consider.

1. The Body Remembers

Check in with your body. What physical feelings are predominant? Can you try tuning into those feelings, whether they’re pleasant or not, and noticing them, like a witness? Can you remember how the body felt at different times during the past year, both high and low? Take a moment to remember and re-embody those times. And then: what tools or techniques were helpful to you (yoga, meditation, nutrition, exercise)? Where did you fall down? (Don’t worry, we all did.) Consider journaling some of this, reflecting on the evolution of this past year with your physical being as a prism.

2. What Helped?

Now let’s move to the level of the heart. What were some of the most difficult moments of the past year, and how did you get through them? Maybe summon one up right now--I’ve got mine--and bring yourself back to it for a moment. And then, as before: what were the resources, inner and outer, that helped you get through? Meditation? A friend? Chocolate? Consider journaling this too. The point is to remember what worked for you (and what didn’t) so that you can turn to it next time life is hard. You’ve been forced to cultivate resilience this past year; don’t forget how you did it.

3. How Did It Feel?

And then, to the mind. See if you can remember how your mind felt at moments of resilience, openness, or sheer endurance. (I’ve stolen this little meditation from Dr. Rick Hanson, who wrote about it in this newsletter last summer.) Remember when you hit a tough place—a relative in the hospital, kids having serious challenges, a job loss, loneliness. Hang out there for a bit. But then fast-forward a little bit to when you emerged from it (even if you fell back later, that’s fine). What did the mind feel like when it was brave, or loving, or fierce? Re-inhabiting these mental states can help the mind become more familiar with them. For example, the brain physically learns what courage is when you revisit it over and over again. So, perhaps in a formal meditation session, take your mind on a tour of the past. Re-inhabit those helpful mind-states, knowing that you’re carving those neural pathways so that the brain can more easily find them next time. (I paraphrase, of course.)

4. What Mattered?

Finally, let’s look at the transpersonal and interpersonal. Who and what really mattered to you over the pandemic? Which friends showed up, and which ones disappeared? (You’re not here to judge the disappearing ones, of course, just noticing and taking stock.) What gave you purpose? What was hard to give up, and what was surprisingly easy? 

These are just some starters. Feel free to share your own questions and prompts in the feedback section. Let’s go through this transition together.

To be sure, none of this is to suggest that the pandemic is all for the best; however valuable, these lessons are not worth the terrible losses that have taken place. And of course, if you’re not ready to harvest just yet, don’t! That, itself, is useful to notice.

Also, be prepared for this transition to be choppy! Most transitions are. You may find, for example, that stuff you’d put on the back burner for a year may suddenly come up once again. You may find social interactions awkward, and uneven; we may do this together, but we’re all going to do it in our own ways and at our own paces. We’ve been living weird, altered, and often warped lives for a long time. All of this, as they say in the meditation business, is grist for the mill.

To close, I’m reminded of some of the best advice I received at the end of a long meditation retreat, from Sharon Salzberg: “Grow wise in the transition.” The transition is part of the process. This is what is happening. And there are a lot of fruits to harvest that can be of great value in our lives.