Facing the New Normal

All of us are facing a new normal, and adjusting to a new normal requires resilience. 

Over our long journey with lung cancer, I came to know many survivors and co-survivors (caregivers). Those in both categories who survived well shared certain qualities, the most important of which is resilience—the ability to recover quickly from illness, change, or misfortune; buoyancy. 

After adjusting to a new normal following my husband's terminal cancer diagnosis and another new normal after his death, I thought I was fairly resilient. But the circumstances we are facing now may be the straw that breaks this camel's back. I feel about as likely to bounce back as that deflated soccer ball.

 Some lucky people have built-in resilience from innate personality traits or learned belief systems. But what if you’re not one of them? Is it possible to develop resilience? I believe it is. And right now is a perfect time to work on it.

Five Steps to Greater Resilience

1. Release. Admit you are powerless. 

2. Reframe. Psychologists call this step restructuring your cognitions. Build positive emotions. Search for meaning in your suffering. Practice gratitude. Exercise benefit finding—the ability to find positive meaning in a traumatic life event. 

3. Reprioritize. Often this happens with no effort on your part. Sometimes with the onset of catastrophic illness or dramatic life change, your priorities automatically realign. Your circumstances offer you a new look at what is important. Others need to make a conscious effort to regroup. 

4. Reconnect—spiritually and relationally. Restore and strengthen family relationships. Strong support systems are crucial to adjustment. More importantly, this is the time to make friends with God.  

5. Recharge. Rest. Relax. Be kind to yourself. Nearly everyone is experiencing real loss with the epidemic–not just loss of life and livelihood but loss of activities and events that brought us great pleasure. Allow yourself to grieve and give vent to your very real emotions. 



Build your resilience now because as things re-open and the quarantine ends, we will face yet another new normal.