Wilson Counseling: The Armchair Chronicles

I was asked by my church to speak on the topic of waiting for their Ash Wednesday service, a Christian holy day that precedes Easter. It is meant to be a time of meditation, of looking inward in sober self-examination before we start looking forward to the joy and celebration of Easter. Before the joy, though, comes waiting.                                                       I feel stuck in the waiting place It's funny that I spoke about waiting in a theoretical context just a couple of weeks before the coronavirus forced all of us into a long, metaphorical waiting room.  Sometimes it feels like we are permanently stuck in that waiting place. Have you ever been trapped on a plane that is having difficulties, and the pilot keeps coming on and saying they will take off shortly? And an hour or two later, you feel like you are going to lose it if they don't let you off the plane or the plane still doesn't take off? The months of March and April feel a l

We Are Social Creatures And We Require Human Connection We have been social distancing for a couple of weeks and even for the introverts, it can start to feel lonely. We are social creatures. All of us. We create meaning in groups. We have identity in groups. We are tethered and grounded in our interactions with people. Right now, those things have been ripped away from us. Even if we can't be physically near people, it does not mean we have to be in solitary confinement. That will feel like torture. In fact, it is not coincidence that they use solitary confinement as a means of punishment for prisoners. But this is not prison (though it sometimes feels like a prison of the mind). If you are feeling lonely during the coronavirus pandemic, what can you do to connect with people? Ideas to Help You Connect While Social Distancing Zoom Party  This works for birthday parties, happy hours, trivia. You name it, it can be done over zoom, or FaceTime, or any other virtual to