On March 31, 2020, I wasn’t the only one that got the call from HR letting me know that effective April 1st, I would no longer be an employee of the company.  Due to the anticipated loss of revenue that the company will endure because of the effects of COVID-19, layoffs were necessary.  Releasing employees across the country was inevitable, so receiving this call was not a complete surprise.  Two things came to mind after this phone call, 1) we need to keep our family healthy and 2) I’m sure there’s a silver lining somewhere in this news. 

You’re thinking, “did she just include the word "‘pandemic’ in the same sentence with a positive word?” Yeah, you read that right. There’s a silver lining in the pandemic for me.  Don’t categorize me as loony just yet. I dug deep to find the bright side of all of this madness. This is how I strive to live my life. I’m the “glass half full,” looking at the world through “rose-colored glasses” type of gal. 

I’ve discovered a knack for dealing with challenges in life.  I’ve lost so many loved ones. I briefly discuss this topic in the book I’m writing, Finding Peace Within Grief.  I share some excerpts from the book in my blog post – Cancer Awareness. 

I’ve been in abusive relationships (check out my post From Abuse to Love HERE).  

I’ve forgiven friends who have wronged me (and by wronged me, I mean set me up to get put in jail among other things). I talk about this experience in my post What to Do When Friendships go South.

I believe it’s these life challenges that have enabled me to find the lessons and good in the pandemic.

I’m sharing 5 silver linings that came out of the pandemic(in order of least to most important). Read on to discover the top benefit I gained from this treacherous time. I believe it is the most vital life lesson to be learned and will be an important & instrumental skill to apply for living a peaceful life.  Can you relate to any of these?

SILVER LINING #5

I HAD TIME TO GET ORGANIZED

You know how you’ve been putting off organizing your closet, pantry, garage, or laundry room? I had to pick a spot and FOCUS! If you’re anything like me, you’ll start in your closet and end up in the garage looking through photos and down some other rabbit hole. FOCUS PEOPLE (I’m literally talking to myself here). Pick one room and stay with it. I’m not going to tell you my garage stayed well-organized since then, but we definitely managed to get rid of a ton of things that no longer served us. I moved on to my closet next. It felt good to purge things I didn’t need.

SILVER LINING #4

I LOOKED AT THE BRIGHT SIDE

You know the saying, “when one door closes, another one opens.” I looked at this new free time I acquired to fill the space with things I wanted to do more of like spending more quality time with my family and in my backyard, working out when I wanted, and having time to just sit down and chill.  It occurred to me that I was always going, going, going. I appreciated not being required to be anywhere.

 SILVER LINING #3

I EXPLORED & STARTED PURSUING NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Without the responsibilities of a job during the constraints of a pandemic, I was free to explore/pursue career options.  Thanks to the pandemic house arrest, I finally had the bandwidth to get my book idea out of my brain and onto paper. This book has been in my head for months. I also had time to explore author workshops, publishing methods and learn about best practices in marketing books. These opportunities are priceless and were only made possible by being forced to stay home and no job to go to.

SILVER LINING #2

I IMMERSED MYSELF IN FAMILY TIME

I mentioned this before but it deserves to be acknowledged again.  Nothing beats quality family time. What a great opportunity to connect with family and give them all of the attention that you have not been able to do because you’ve spent so much time at work, commuting to work, then coming home, and…working some more!  The shelter in place requirement during this pandemic got us all out of our comfort zone and forced us to find ways to entertain ourselves.  If you have a family at home, this is the ideal time to give them your full attention.  We set up movie and game nights.  We took the time to teach our kids things that will help them in life, like how to do laundry or cook a meal.  If you want to check out some of the funny things we made our kids do, you can find our stories from our popular quarantine series “Home Schooling at the Roberts” on my Instagram highlights (Q20 Pt. 1 & 2) HERE.

SILVER LINING #1

I WENT INWARD

I’m not gonna lie, I was a little sad and disappointed when I was laid off from my job. After a couple of days though, I acknowledged the feeling and then released it.  I moved to the next level of thought and asked what did I learn about myself in this experience? What did I learn about myself at that job?  I thought about my reaction to being laid off.  I was okay with the way I handled it.  I reinstated my meditation practice on a more consistent basis due to the pandemic shutdown.

I would spend 5-10 minutes during the day meditating or sitting in silence. I preferred doing this at the beginning of the day.  I feel that it helps me react to situations (big or small) in a more peaceful way.  Going inward is a part of self-care that, if we don’t take the time to do, it becomes difficult to give to others, like our family, or be able to think openly about new opportunities.  We certainly won’t be able to look at the bright side if we haven’t released the negative emotions we are still harboring and this, in turn, clutters our minds and you know what? Keeping these feelings inside weakens our immune system which we most definitely need to keep strong during a pandemic or during any other tumultuous time in our lives.

Did you find any silver linings from the pandemic?

Please leave your feedback in the comments. I would love to hear your thoughts.