Sustaining through Crisis – #FindYourTribe

Hi everybody, I’m Maggie O’Connor at Breakthrough MFT, helping you reach your ‘breakthrough moment.’

Where are you with your ‘crisis mode’? Have you had the ugly cry yet? Have you lost it on your partner or children or the jar of jelly YET?

I say ‘yet’ because time is UP for crisis mode – we first started social spacing in NY about 2 weeks ago. Remember? Feels like a millin years ago!

At the time, people were really focused on how to manage all of the aspects of a suddenly volatile world by arranging schedules and child care figuring out family situations. We were also buying up all the toilet paper at the store…

Our priorities shifted suddenly and sometimes what came out as most important was surprising; but there it was.

But then something happened. All of a sudden the wheels came off! Collectively it seems, we all had our breakdown. We all had the sense of

I can’t…
Keep going.
Like this.

And you’re right. Our body only has a a limited amount of time it can sustain in ‘crisis mode’ before it really breaks down. I’ve most often heard it put at 2 weeks before the collapse. And guess where we are in NY? At about 2 weeks of ‘social spacing’

So… you can’t keep going in crisis mode, but how do we live through the ongoing crisis which seems to have no clear before and after?
That’s where self care comes in – that’s where we talk about taking it one day at a time.

There will always be room for bad news and grief; the hard stuff about this. Self care is a way of taking yourself out of that, and remembering that we’re people.

We’re talking about structuring; having a schedule, getting dressed and bathed even if you’re not working right now or all your conference calls are audio only. Get exercise. Get outside.

Keep making those FaceTime calls – our relationships are the cornerstone of our sanity. We need our tribe now more than ever.

It means consciously seeking what makes you laugh or reminds you of the joy and beauty of life. There are a ton of free resources online to see Broadway shows, opera, live concerts.

Art & creativity will make us feel truly make you free, even in quarantine.

What you put in front of you is what you reflect back out into the world, and how we get a nice positive cycle going.

Sure there’s still room for the tough stuff; I’m not saying to look away from it, but I am saying to look toward the things that feed you to get you through the longer term of this crisis.

I’m Maggie O’Connor wishing you good health and safety, and hoping this helps you to break on through.

#Find Your Tribe – Opportunity in Crisis

Hi everybody, I’m Maggie O’Connor at Breakthrough MFT, helping you reach your ‘breakthrough moment.’

You can see some other videos I’ve already done on coronavirus, anxiety and #FindYourTribe at BreakthroughMFT.com/blog .

Today what I want to talk about is that one thing that I’m really happy about in this crisis is that everybody seems to understand that we need to address the isolation; and we need to address all of the social norms that are being violated by this crisis! You know, there are a lot of things that you can do to stay emotionally and physically healthy. Google is full of resources, and I might do

another post on it if you’d like; but today what I really want to talk about is why it’s so important for us to remain healthy.

Crisis is an amplifier for whatever else you already have going on and you combine that with the isolation which takes away the distractions and obligations that usually keep the distance from whatever bothers you, or excites you. We go more toward those anxieties or things that bother us or we go more towards the things that excite us and make us happy! That’s why there’s an uptick in divorces and pregnancies during times like this!

There’s an opportunity in this crisis. An opportunity for greater connection with the people around you and with yourself!

Also, there’s another little opportunity here – you know how you say you don’t have time for therapy? Well, a lot of therapists are going online with great success, so as you come up against the parts of yourself or the parts of your relationships that you just can’t distract from right now, I’d really encourage you to consider going toward that piece of the crisis as an opportunity to actually resolve something!

I think we are stronger together. We are better together; and when these connections start to feel a little warped we can get really depressed about it. So if you find yourself on the ‘divorces’ side and not so much on the ‘pregnancies’ side of things, give us a call here at Breakthrough MFT.

We are here for you. Or, if you’re not local to Westchester, NY, you can certainly reach out to a therapist in your location. I encourage you to take good care of yourself and the people around you. #FindYourTribe and stick with them.

I’m Maggie O’Connor at Breakthrough MFT, hoping this helps you to ‘break on through.’