Amy Curtis, senior director of counseling for Buckner Children and Family Services, wrote this article for the Baptist News Global. She explains how the shift back to our lives, offices and churches might create new emotions and challenges. You are not alone in those feelings. She gives some tips to help reduce your anxiety returning to pre-COVID activities. 

The shift back to our lives, our offices or our churches will be with mixed emotions and added stress. We are not used to the drive or the noise. We are leaving the familiar. What can you do to help reduce your feelings of anxiety in the weeks or months ahead?

In the last few weeks, I have been living a fully vaccinated, post-pandemic life. I have traveled, gone to the movies, eaten in restaurants without a mask. It feels like I am doing something just slightly rebellious but enjoyable, like skipping school on a spring day.

But there is something else I have noticed. I often feel anxious and have less patience with people, traffic and noise. I also have noticed I am not the only one. I can see it everywhere. Not only have I been yelled at or honked at in traffic, but I have been the honker. We are not used to being around each other. We’ve forgotten how to share, and we’ve really forgotten how to share the road.

Everything changed this past year, and now it feels as though everything should just naturally shift back to the way it was pre-pandemic. But it isn’t happening that way.

Read the rest of the article on the Baptist News Global.