How are you feeling?
We recently closed the book on an incredibly challenging year, and many of us are still catching our breath. If the thought of scrolling through your feed and seeing one more piece of bad news is almost too overwhelming, you are not alone.
In the past year, the boundaries which separated the different areas of our lives blurred or seemed to disappear. We took on a variety of roles as some of us became teachers, made-to-order cooks, and household managers on top of our usual work and family responsibilities. We honed the art of multitasking. We bought masks, scoured medical blogs, and watched the news relentlessly. We took great measures to protect and nurture our physical health.
As weeks became months, many of us began to feel the emotional toll of a very atypical time that included the double punch of a global pandemic and a divisive election, both on the island and the United States. Almost out of necessity, many of our conversations moved from the merely superficial to a different level of openness as we acknowledged the cumulative psychological effect of what we have experienced. It has become clear that mental health has to a be a priority if we want to make it through to the next chapter of our story and thrive.