DETROIT – With the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, life as we knew it is gone, and with it a possible change in why we complain.
Dr. Donna Rockwell, clinical psychologist, said when there is a major life change, we look at things differently.
“Things like running late or not picking up something at the grocery store you wanted to or you forgot the dry cleaning, you know, little sort of petty things like that, lose their emphasis, and we refocus on what really matters," Rockwell said. “I think it’s really important in life that we do get the opportunity to re-perspectivise what is valuable to us, what’s meaningful to us and what matters. We could just go along our entire lives just doing errands and checking things off the list, but at the end of a lifetime that’s not what really matters. What matters is how much we live, how much we love how much we’re able to let go, small indiscretions little petty grievances. What matters is affairs of the heart, and how we can stay present, and how the people in our lives matter, and how we can let them know they now.
She said it is important right now to have structure in our lives and create a schedule. The schedule can help people feel more grounded, without one we can start to feel lost.
Rockwell said in our fast-paced life we often times had a checklist and wanted to get things done then move onto the next thing on the list and din’t really create time for deep thought or connection.
“Going through times like this pandemic may be extremely difficult, but it offers a silver lining which is that we re discover what matters to us, we reconnect to the people who matter to us. I’ve heard so many stories of people calling up and asking for forgiveness, or calling in offering forgiveness over grievances that happened years ago, because people need each other. We are social beings and we need to connect. So, it’s so important when we go through times like this to reconsider what matters to us and to focus then on those things and not on just finishing a checklist, making sure we go through the motions now things have the opportunity to have deep meaning,” Rockwell said.
Rockwell has practices in both suburban Detroit and New York.
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