What was the last time you heard the
names Sam Harris and Trace Atkins in the
same sentence? This philosophy on
shelter-in-place was developed from
both of their works and an article that's
been circulating the internet for quite
some time.
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who are infected displaced or working in
the fight against covid 19.
Those of us lucky enough not to be directly affected may only be faced with the
temporary reality of forced prolonged
cohabitation with family members, anxious
about how much longer it's gonna be. This is for you. The chorus of one of Trace Adkins famous song says
"You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back.
You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone
by so fast." This chorus is as pertinent
right now as ever as a lot of us are
wondering when the hell this is gonna
end, when we get to go back to our lives
and when we can develop a healthy amount
of space from the people that we're
forced to live with right now. They will
miss this time with our families. Moving
along,. I mentioned earlier that there was
an article that helping me and my
perspective on shelter-in-place with
family it's called "The Tail End." In it,
the author makes several illustrations
of how most of us, by the time we move
out of our family homes and away from
our parents, will have already spent 90%
of the total time that we'll ever spend
with them throughout our lives. In fact,
most people have less time in person
with their parents after they move out
of their family homes for the remainder
of their lives than they had in a single
year before moving out. Along that same
line Sam Harris has a lesson in his
Waking Up app. The lesson is called
Gratitude in a roundabout way relates to
that the Trace Adkins song and the tail-end article.
It's fairly straightforward philosophy we can use to quell some of the anxiety and the
angst that goes along with wondering
when this shelter-in-place thing is
gonna end. Without further ado, in Sam
Harris's lesson on the Waking Up app,, he
says, "unless you're living your worst
possible life," and I'm reading here, "it
should be easy to find something to be
grateful for. Let's say I'm stressed out
by something not going well. I'm reacting
to some hassle. I could be caught in
traffic and late for an appointment.
Sometimes think of bad things that
haven't happened to me. I might think I
haven't been diagnosed with a fatal
illness," very pertinent here, "I'm not
caught in a war zone, and then I reflect
that if I were in their shoes I would be
desperate to get back to precisely the
situation I'm in now." If neither you nor
an immediate family member is infected
with Covid 19, you could actually take
this Sam Harris lesson and imagine just
for one minute you are dealing with the
uncertainty of such a diagnosis. You
could also to project yourself to a time
in the not-too-distant future in which
you're in line at a bank or caught in
traffic or some of you young parents
might have a child that grows up to be
successful enough to move out of the
country for a work opportunity. You'll look
back on this time of forced family
closeness and cohabitation and wish for
another minute of it instead of what you
probably will have to deal with in the
future. This is not to say that we
shouldn't plan a more complete life at
some point soon, but, realize, life after
shelter-in-place won't necessarily be
better during every moment than it is
now.
I hope this is a helpful perspective
please comment with anything that has
helped lessen or decrease your anxiety
about when this is going to end or any
angst that comes up with having to
listen such close quarters for an
indefinite amount of time of your family.
Thank you
