Get Ready For The Ugly Cry

It’s been a day.

A day for the ugly cry.  Therapy in these challenging times.

I highly recommend it.

We are all doing our best.  And if you’re like me you feel like you have to “keep it together”.  For work, for the kids, for your own sanity.

These are difficult times.  Like nothing we have ever experienced before.

For the most part, I am doing my best to maintain some sort of routine. I’m getting up at 7am, or sometimes, 7:09, 7:18, 7:27 or later.  Snoozers understand.

When you sleep, you forget.  When your alarm goes off and you open your eyes, you have that split second where you are still distanced from reality.  You almost FORGET what it happening around you.

My husband is still working out of town.  There are a lot of people still working.  Still putting themselves out there in this scary world.

This morning started like other days. The alarm, the denial, the coffee, the workout, the shower.

I’ve been playing a bit of worship music to distract me in the morning.  Looking for hope.  Something bigger than this virus to believe in and cling to.

A few words into the song and I just lost it.  The ugly cry.

And you know what?  It’s just what I needed.  I needed that push to just let go of all of it.  The anxiety, the fear, the worry – and just let it go.

Don’t keep your feelings bottled up.  Let them out.  Do the ugly cry.  The Tammy Faye mascara running down your face ugly cry. Maybe it’s a song.  Maybe you need to rewatch Grey’s Anatomy.  Or This Is Us.

Find something that will allow you to let go of all that’s building up.  Because it will.

As adults, we want to protect our kids.  We want to keep it together.  We feel like we have to “be strong” for those around us.  It gets exhausting.

So give yourself permission to feel all the feelings.

We can do our best to stick to some sort of normal routine, but the truth is, nothing is normal right now.

We miss people.  We miss our family members.  I can’t wait to see my dad again.  I know he’s high-risk for this virus.  For him I will stay home.  For those in health care that will give up so much to take care of those who will need it.  I will stay home.  It’s not easy being apart from those we love. It’s not easy not being able to hang out or shop.  But we have to.

I read somewhere that what we are feeling right now is a lot like grief.  We are grieving.  Our normal life.  Our connection to people.

Ugly cry.  Just do it.  I’ll be searching out another sad movie tonight for another therapy session on the couch.  I finally remembered where I hid the chocolate. (smile)

Categorised in: Afternoons

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan