Stop Waiting for Everything to go Back to Normal

You’ve probably heard it before, or you’re the one saying it. “When will go back to normal?” Everyone wants to go back to a time before the pandemic, when they were comfortable in the life they were living, but it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen.

This virus is here to stay, and we must learn to live with it and combat it when it hits us.

Personally, I don’t think everything that’s changed since the pandemic started is a bad thing but there're some aspects that we need to fix.

Working From Home

This is something that has been needed for a long time. I don’t think that you should work from home all the time. People are social creatures by nature and going into work helps you fight off certain problems like depression.

But for those that live in the suburbs and take a 5 a.m. train into the city for work, working at home would help. Picture waking up Monday through Friday at 4 a.m., taking the train to work and arriving around 6:30, and working from 7 to 5 to take the train back home.

You’re up 13 hours before you even leave work. The internet has made it possible for people to video conference from anywhere and you can reach your email from the same locations.

Adding more work from home days allows you to stay your best self.

You're saving 2 or 3 hours in the day to rest or doing that you need to do but couldn’t because you weren’t home. Now you can go to the gym before or after work. Staying healthy is important in more than one way.

Physically, we do more sitting than moving, at an office job. Working from home, you may still be sitting but time used for traveling to and from work can now be used for activity.

Exercise can help you become healthy as well. Its scientifically proven that exercise releases chemicals in the brain that make you feel better.

If you need a little more rest, these work from home days can help you, so as soon as you’re done with work you can relax, take a nap and recharge.

There're ways you can take advantage of working from home. Learn what you need to fix or improve and find ways to act on them.

Masks

I think its safe to say that more people hated the mask mandate than liked it. We saw videos of people arguing with store managers about wearing one and others were coughing on people to try to keep them away.

I do not agree with these methods, but I don’t believe it’s the majority who act this way. Most people are muttering to themselves and obeying by the rule.

Others may be more into wearing a mask if they believe that they or someone around them is getting sick.

This is popular in Japan. Even before the pandemic, the Japanese used face masks. When ever someone felt like they were getting sick, they would put one on and go to work.

This is so that if they are getting sick, they don’t get their coworkers sick as well.

When the pandemic started, it hit certain countries hard like Italy and now Australia, but Japan had remained rather unscathed. Is this because they were already used to wearing masks?

It’s possible, but we don’t know enough about this disease yet to be sure. I believe it didn’t hurt them.

Here in the United States, we are not accustomed to wearing masks and trying something new is scary at first. Now we are being that we have to do it and no one likes being to do something they don’t like doing or are scared of.

Masks can be a pain while doing certain activities, but they are manageable. Those that wear glasses probably have a hard time when their glasses fog up from breathing.

Runners may find it difficult to breath or find the mask being sucked into their mouth from breathing heavily.

These can make us angry but if wearing a mask can help keep us safe from this virus it may be worth it.

Health Becoming a Focus

Before the pandemic, people were going on with their lives without a care in the world. Then they would get sick and find out they had a condition that needs to be like diabetes.

We tend to be one track minded or get stuck in our routine to notice when something is wrong with us.

That’s why I believe that the pandemic helped some of us slow down and realize we need to improve our health.

Others learned that they have mental health issues and are now learning how to live with them. Depression and anxiety issues are common now and can be caused from working depending on what you do and how long you work.

You may have overworked yourself and now need to rest to regain your strength physically and .

It’s good that mental health problems are being talked about more. In the past we looked at them as weakness and put a stigma on them.

Now we understand more about how they can affect someone’s life and what we can do to fix that.

You may see it as one more thing to deal with but if you take care of it now, it won't be a problem or as much of a problem in the future.

Mental health is becoming more of a problem than we thought. Getting on top of it now is what I believe is best not for ourselves but for our country.

Final Thoughts

We are going through a life changing event. To think that it will end and everything will go back to the way doesn’t make sense to me.

When the towers fell on 9/11, life changed and people feared going on airplanes. Now we are fighting against an enemy that we can't see and that makes it more frightening.

The not knowing when it will strike, what it looks like, or what we can do to fend it off is troubling.

If we learn to live with these new aspects of life, we may find some positives. Like finding time for ourselves or working from home. These aspects can help us find the joy in life we once had.