It’s Not All Bad: Finding our Post-Pandemic Strength in Times of Despair

If you’re feeling a bit like me, you may be a little fatigued.

We had raging bushfires across the country in early 2020. Followed by a pandemic that decimated the global economy. Now that the pandemic is slowly fading into history books, we’re faced with more horror.

The Taliban re-took Afghanistan. There’s a senseless war in Ukraine. Over 200 civilians have been killed so far. Floods have devastated parts of New South Wales and Queensland. 17 people have died so far. We learned that legendary cricketer and Aussie icon Shane Warne passed away from a heart attack.

And to top it off – Adelaide has just experienced an earthquake.

I can’t blame you if you’re feeling angry, upset, scared, or heartbroken.

The pandemic is almost over – so how can we recover?

It seems like, at least here in Australia, the pandemic is showing signs of fading into the history books. Nearly 80% of Australia is fully vaccinated. The economy is showing some signs of recovery.

So, the news of war, floods, earthquakes, and the deaths of Aussie icons comes as a major blow to a lot of us.

But this is where we must band together – and find our post-pandemic strength.

The strength we were talking about as the pandemic was taking its toll on the Australian population.

This is the time we must pull ourselves together and find our silver lining so that we can conquer these times of despair and come out the other end as better people.

This is time for resilience.

This is the time for us to bite the bullets that fly toward us.

We may be experiencing tremendous heartache due to what’s happening across the country and the world.

But now is not the time to shut down.

This is time for us to feel the pain, and fight through it. This is the time to transform this pain into energy – so that we can take positive action.

This is time to help others.

With that positive action, this is the time when we can lend out our hand and help others.

If you’ve got family members or colleagues stuck in the floods, show your support. 

This could be anything from a text message to donating money or goods to joining the SES and physically assisting in recovery efforts.

If you’ve got a colleague at work feeling down, don’t ignore them. Speak to them, take them out for lunch, and talk about it. You’ll be surprised at how much they’ll appreciate it.

This is time to make new friendships.

The time our strongest friendships are forged is when we experience challenging times together. That’s why friendships and bonds in places like the military are unbreakable – because individuals constantly experience challenging times together.

Now that all of us are experiencing some form of grief, fear, or heartache, it’s our opportunity to reach out to others who are feeling the same.

Being resilient and lending a helping hand – is how we can build new friendships that can last a lifetime.

Well beyond the pandemic.

This is time to be leaders.

As the times of despair close in on us, we can grasp our resilience, our friendships, and our willingness to help --

-- and use it to become leaders.

It could mean leaders within our family, as people who are closest to you, come to lean on you for emotional support.

It could mean leaders within our friendship circles, as friends, turn to you for help and guidance.

It could mean leaders within our community, especially if we’re using our resilience to help our neighbours suffering from the disasters plaguing the world.

It could also mean leaders at work - everyone as leaders, regardless of title, position, authority, tenure, or status. Everyone is a leader because everyone influences someone, and that someone will look to you for compassion and advice. 

How will you get your post-pandemic strength?

Whether it’s building resilience, helping others, making friends, or becoming leaders – there are dozens of ways we can find our post-pandemic strength.

We’re already seeing signs of resilience and strength across the world right now.

We’re seeing locals in Lismore helping their neighbours because emergency services have become strained.

We’re seeing people across Europe rush to help refugees pouring out of Ukraine.

This is resilience, teamwork, friendship, and a responsibility to care for humanity in action. 

How will you embrace your post-pandemic strength?