“Endurance is patience concentrated.”
-Thomas Carlyle
Grieving through this pandemic (or just living through it) is a great test of endurance. Grief, like our current pandemic atmosphere, is full of uncertainty, new and unavoidable stressors to face, emotional and mental fatigue, and a need to develop new problem-solving skills. Although the pandemic feels endless, there is a treatment in development. Grief, however, has no treatment that fully ends the experience, nothing that declares it over.
The energy required to keep going everyday is exhausting. The experience may also be fraught with episodes of self-sabotage in the form of thoughts (and sometimes behaviors) that undermine the very progress you have made.
Both grief and the pandemic require us to dig deep down into ourselves and muster the greatest level of patience we have available. Not only that, we must grow more patience to replenish what we expend, especially for experiences and feelings we never anticipated.
If endurance is concentrated patience, we can mix it with a concoction of part love, kindness, and sense of humor to will stretch our ability to endure longer than we ever have and through more difficult emotional experiences that we may have before.
Do not give up. Keep to your healthy habits, even if they feel pointless right now. Keep connected with supporters your love and trust. Give yourself a break every now and again to be frustrated and to replenish your patience. Remind yourself that you already are enduring all of this.
A.N.Carroll 