Claire Edwards

Transcript:

The coronavirus has left us to figuring out how to do everything in our life at home if that is even possible. How to work from work, stay in shape, how to keep in touch with people, etc. I kind of feel like we are throwing everything in our life into this box, this box being our home. We are confined to these structured walls that we are encouraged to stay in for who knows how long. Hopefully, your box has at least expanded to the boundaries of your neighborhood like mine have with taking walks every day. Being in this box can easily make us feel lonely, trapped, and crazy as we just figure out what we are going to do with our days with these constraints we have.

When I started to accept that we may be in this box for a long time, it made me think “how am I possibly supposed to grow in this box? How am I possibly supposed to further my life in this box? It is nearly impossible to grow in here.” Now, I realized very quickly that that was not the attitude to have and it certainly was not going to serve me over the next however many weeks.

The thing I realized was that there is no box. Yes, there may be a physical box called your home or neighborhood, but there is no mental/emotional/spiritual box that keeps you from growing unless you convince yourself there is one. We have to convince ourselves that there is no box and this is not a reason to stop growing.

Easier said than done, right? Trust me it took me a second to be like ok I’m in here for the long haul, how can I possibly still grow? The 2 facts that convinced me that we can still grow were we have the wonderful world of technology and new sense of time. Heck, we are so blessed that this is happening during the existence so much technology and the internet. The technology we have allows there to be no box. We can learn, connect, and grow, and we can utilize more than ever before. I may sound like an ad for a kid’s computer learning program, but we can learn, connect, and grow. The other fact that convinced me that I can still grow is that my schedule has never been so clear in my life. We almost don’t know what to do with ourselves it’s so clear. Even if you have kids, work, dogs, or sick family members to tend you, there is that little extra time right now that was once accompanied by driving time, time getting dulled up, or time you were taking to please people you really don’t care about. You can spend this time growing in new ways. I think there are some busy-bees out there that have secretly always wanted a moment like this to slow down and do the things that don’t usually get to do.

I am reading this book right now called The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. She often encourages us to think about what we would be in our other lives…painters, pilots, singers, executive chefs, yoga teachers, DJs, you name it. I believe we have this unique opportunity right now to pursue our other lives, or at least get curious about them. With the internet in our hands, we can start researching and reading about these things we are curious about, but never felt like we could take action on before.

To share with you, in my other lives, I want to be an acoustic guitar singer, a motivational wellness speaker, an author, and event planner. I have this opportunity to purse these things and start getting curious about them. So, I’m doing things right now like exploring new wellness topics, learning effective writing skills, and teaching myself how to play guitar (I’m up to 8 notes now people). I’ve used this thought of what my other lives might be to help me figure out what things I may want to start searching on Youtube, reading books about, or learning. I think of this time as my ultimate time to be creative and do the things I wouldn’t always have the opportunity to do.

I have recognized though that even after pursuing all the creative endeavors you can think of, organizing every room in your house, and facetiming every family member and friend, there is still a feeling of isolation. Something that has brought comfort to me though is that we are all in the same boat with this. No matter where we live, how old we are, or what are life experiences are, we are all in the same boat feeling this pain and how often does that happen. Yes, some of us are getting paid, while others aren’t. Some of us are missing out on big life events, while others aren’t. Some of us are sick, while others aren’t. But whatever type of pain we are feeling, we are feeling it together and for some reason I find strength and connection in that. I find strength that we can recognize that there is no box together and we can all grow and get through this. We can stay connected through social media and Facetime which has done wonders. We are fighting through this together and making the best of it. And we are all going to celebrate when it’s over. In my head, I picture all of us clinking Corona beers at the end of all of this.

My goal when this is over, hoping sooner rather than later of course, is I want to say I was proud of how I made the best of the situation and how much I grew. I want to come out proud on the other side of this.

There is no box if we don’t let there be one. We can create a life we are proud of, even during this difficult time.