Today started off challenging. Nothing major happened that couldn’t be fixed by the end of the day. Everyone is safe and healthy in my immediate circle, even if we are all living in a constant state of fear, anxiety, and stress due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I’d been keeping my emotional Jenga tower standing over the past 9 weeks of quarantine. Till this one frustrating thing happened. And my tower tumbled. It was like Ellen pushing Allison Sweeny over in this enormous Jenga game. Nothing malicious, just life happening, but it was too much to handle in that particular moment.
Sometimes major life events happen and we understand why we fall apart. Death, accidents, loss, conflict, natural and man-made disasters can send our towers toppling, but we understand this and give ourselves space and time to rebuild our towers. What I think we understand less is that days, weeks, and months of small stressors can have the same effect on our emotional health. We are managing and getting by, till one day something frustrating, emotional, or scary happens and our tower topples out of what seems like nowhere. Except it wasn’t really out of nowhere.
It’s important to take inventory of our mental health on a regular basis so we are aware of any stressors in our metaphorical tower of emotional health. Is there something happening at work that is causing days, weeks, or months of stress? Is something happening at home that needs to be worked through. Are we sleeping as much as we should, eating healthy most of the time? Getting some kind of movement throughout the day? Neglecting all of these things can add up to one big crash that may take time to repair.
If you have a toppling emotional Jenga tower, or are trying to rebuild your tower after a major topple, talking to a therapist can be helpful. We all become overwhelmed sometimes and need a reset every so often. Sometimes it helps to have someone help you rebuild that tower and learn strategies to keep it standing.
And then sometimes we have to apologize to others for how we acted when our tower toppled and take them out for social distancing icy treats to make amends. And that’s how we start to rebuild ourselves on a sunny spring day during week 9 of quarantine.