Being a healthcare worker is challenging and being human is tough.
Prior to the pandemic,
I was working hard,
Providing therapy in public health care and in private practice.
I had been working a long six-month stretch without a break,
Planning and looking forward to a longer holiday.
To travel to support my daughter following the birth of her second baby.
The suitcase was planned,
Packed,
And the plane would never take off our land.
Fast forward and we were in a pandemic.
I watched from the clinic window the wave descending and spreading and I knew that I wasn't going anywhere.
I wasn't going anywhere but home to work during a pandemic.
Working as a mental health therapist while living alone was and is the most difficult thing that I have ever experienced.
I am forever grateful for colleagues and friends both near and around the world that supported me during those early days.
And as we continue to journey and explore our new normal.
What has been the most difficult for me during this pandemic is that the work that I do is primarily trauma and grief based.
Doing the work from home was a foreign frontier.
The trauma was now in my home and grief triggered grief and there sat before me on my own couch.
Again was my own love that I had lost.
Insight is everything.
I recently returned back for my own therapy.
Because therapists need to take care of their own stuff to stay healthy and be well.
You see,
I feel intensely.
I feel the pain of others and my empathy can be both a strength and a weakness.
Reflecting there has been many positive things that have come out of this time.
Many things that I value.
And at the end of day the re-triggering just brought to service the stuff that still needed to be processed.
I'm practicing what I teach.
Radical acceptance,
Self-love and compassion.
Being a healthcare worker is challenging.
And being human is a strength.
It is a strength to be authentic and vulnerable and to open up.
I'm grateful for this journey and blessed to walk amidst friends.
I'm grateful for life's many teachers.
Today wherever you are,
Whatever your life circumstance.
I wish you peace,
Love and light.
May you be well.
