How to create your new NORMAL
In a disaster situation such as an earthquake, we call on our “surge capacity” to cope until we can restore things to normal. But what happens when the disaster, such as a pandemic, doesn’t go away?
American science writer Tara Haelle wrote a compelling piece about how her “surge capacity” had run out and what she did to create her new normal. It struck a chord with many people, including popular US research professor Dr Brené Brown, who talked about it on her podcast. Thrive reached out to Tara to ask about surge capacity and how to create a new normal when the old normal has long gone.
As you’re a science journalist, some people might think that you have a unique understanding of Covid-19 and are therefore better able to cope than the rest of us. In reality, what happened to you?
In one sense, you’re not wrong. In the early days of the pandemic, especially in March and April – but even earlier, in February – I felt very equipped to deal with the anxiety and uncertainty of the pandemic. Uncertainty is, ironically enough, the foundation of science. It’s also a search for more information and more precision and more understanding, so I’m more comfortable than most with embracing the uncertain. I also have an anxiety disorder, so I’m used to dealing with anxiety-causing situations, and the fact that I know so much about infectious disease, historic pandemics and medical research certainly meant I understood the threat and the reasons for unanswered questions better than others.
All that said, nothing can prepare you for being holed up in your home indefinitely with no clear sense of when
