The Silver Lining

As we move into the fifth month of the COVID-19 nightmare, I’ve noticed more and more people trying to figure out their new life. It’s not really a new normal, for we don’t know fully what’s to come. In this environment of uncertainty, people seem to be searching for ways to make themselves as happy and content as possible while still fearing the future.

Over these months, I have worked with numerous clients to up their communications skills, mainly in the digital space. I have continued to coach regularly via Zoom, helping people apply for jobs, conduct sales calls, and build new contacts by improving their skills in Zoom, SKYPE, Google Hangout, and Blackboard Collaborate. This enhanced ability to communicate is one of the silver linings of COVID times. 

Also on the plus side, people have been taking better control of their health. We all know that Americans crave fast food and high-calorie snacks. We are an eatin’ bunch of people. Obesity runs rampant in our society and, along with it, the comorbidities of hypertension, high cholesterol, and type-2 diabetes. Now, not all of these diseases are due to obesity, but a great percentage of the population is at higher risk of suffering mightily and even dying from COVID-19 if they are obese.

So another big silver lining in all of this is that people have been eschewing quick-fix, bad-for-you foods in favor of healthier alternatives. A recent article in Philadelphia Inquirer stated that there is a significant uptick in home gardening, including among those who have survived the virus. Taking a trowel and digging in the soil, planting, and pruning our food gives us a sense of purpose and safety in a very dangerous world, and provides a resurgence of the WWII Victory Gardens. Fruits and vegetables are growing all over town--on city lots, suburban backyards, condominium terraces.

Gardening offers us an enjoyable way to exercise. It forges a spiritual connection to our planet. Whether on a small or major level, gardening gives us new purpose now that we been furloughed or fired, forced to retire, or recuperating from illness. 

Especially for people who live alone, as 35.7 million or one in four Americans do, home gardening can be extraordinarily therapeutic. A home garden, even if it’s simply a collection of sprouting pots near a sunny window inside your home, brings with it heaps of satisfaction, possibly mitigating the penetrating loneliness we feel in lockdown. Caring for my garden on my tiny terrace has become, in its way, like caring for a surrogate family when currently I’m not able to be with my own.

What silver linings have come out of the pandemic for you? Leave a comment below. 

Get more tips about getting out of your own way in Your Self Sabotage Survival Guide by Karen Berg: https://tinyurl.com/y786t4ax