Understanding the time-limited nature of crisis mode.

On a coaching call with a client, they expressed the deep overwhelm that has culminated over the last year. Work has been in crisis mode on the daily as frontline staff, coupled with the gripping grief and loss, and many logistics transitions as COVID-protocols shifted. “I am numb to it,” they explained.

Crisis theory teaches us that from the start of a crisis to the time we return to a state of equilibrium is 6-8 weeks. This never feels true at the onset of a crisis. As much as I might intellectually know this theory and have observed the cycle in others or retrospectively observed it in my own life, the disorientation that sets in at the beginning of a crisis feels like it will last forever.

Crisis is often thought of as both a danger and an opportunity - because the time-limited nature of the disruption and our body’s desire to return to a place of homeostasis.

Understanding that our body craves balance, or homeostasis, and that the disequilibrium of a crisis is of time-limited duration - how might we pause to ground ourselves, assess the situation and resources we have available, and make a plan to support a return to balance?

Many of us are in fragile states at this time. Meaning, as well-resourced and thoughtful and intentional as we may have been over the last year-plus, we have also spent much of that time in various cycles of 6-8 week crisis adapting and readapting.

As I attempt to calibrate myself to the unpeeling layers of post-pandemic life, I am returning to a practice of noticing where I experience balance in my life and where I am feeling imbalance - what craves correction? Noticing, without judgement or a scaling myself against others’ experiences, with a warm regard for what is.

I notice a balance with my sleep; a nearly odd ability to sleep through the frequent commotions outside my apartment. I notice a balance in the close relationships that are my QuaranTeam as we each begin to tentatively navigate outside the pod. I am finding imbalance with my body, a craving of correction toward more cardio and surfing and dancing. I am finding imbalance with my connection to technology, a craving of correction toward more offline time and nature.

In what ways are you noticing balance in your life? Where do you notice imbalance - what craves correction? What will you shift this week to bring yourself toward balance, an equilibrium?

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