Hi, Andy Brown here. Hey, I wanted to just talk for a second about some of these unprecedented times that we’re going through right now as a state and as a nation and as a world. You probably like I have been glued to the news watching how many covid-19 infections there are in your area and all that kind of stuff. And this stuff tends to just shake us up from the core, right? I mean, it messes with our essential sense of security as human beings.

And I found that, you know, when I go through stuff like this, there are a lot of times there are emotions that I’m not expecting some that I am expecting. Right. I mean, we expect things like uncertainty and fear. But then, you know, I’ve also found that there are other things that are popping up for me. And and so I wanted to just encourage you during this time as we face so much uncertainty, don’t just go buy more toilet paper if you need it by it.

But that’s not the most important thing. I think the most important thing we can do is people right now is stay aware of what’s going on within us and stay aware of what’s happening internally. Right. Because we tend to either go to one of these things we call gateway emotions. Right. So we might just get angry because we’re feeling other stuff and we’re not aware of it. We might we might walk into fear or anxiety. And that’s really easy to do in a time like this.

But what we really need to do is, is turn our attention inward and be aware of what’s happening so that we don’t end up yelling at the kids, even though the drive is nuts because they’ve been home for a week and they’re going crazy, too. Right. Or our partner or whatever the case may be. So that that awareness, I think, is the first thing. And then as we grow that awareness, right, then we have the opportunity to to react to those emotions as we identify what they are.

Right. So, you know, I think whether we’re feeling grief, whether we’re feeling sadness, whether we’re feeling fear, whether we’re feeling uncertainty, all those things are legitimate. And we we respond to all those things differently. So be aware of what’s going on internally. Be intentional about responding to it. I think when we’re when we’re quarantined, when we’re told we have to stay home, a lot of times we tend to just veg and just, you know, Netflix or whatever the case may be.

And I do that, too. And we need to do that. But I would encourage you to also take time to to be introspective and reflective.

If you got a place where you can do it safely, take a walk, you know, do some journaling, you know, talk to a loved one, you’re quarantined with whatever the case may be. But let’s use this time to emerge from quarantine, to emerge from covid-19 as healthier emotionally, just as we’re trying to be healthy physically. So, as always, if I can if I can be of any help, let me know. A lot of my clients are doing telehealth sessions right now, and I’d be happy to chat with you if you need it or if I can help it all.

But otherwise, just encourage you. Just be aware of what’s going on and use this time for the best that we can, even though a lot of unknowns, a lot of things up in the air and a lot of things we don’t have control over.