As I’m writing this, messages are whipping back and forth through the multiple whatsapp parent groups I participate in. In the last few days, the Omicron variant has been making itself increasingly known in the greater community and there’s been a lot of speculation about what this may mean for schools. For a second, I started to feel like the walls were closing in, again. It was very reminiscent of March 2020 when day by day, new information came out and our lives started to get smaller and smaller.

So, here’s your, in real time, reminder to feel the feelings and breathe your way through them. If you’re noticing your anxiety increasing, stop, close your eyes if you’d like, feel the ground under your feet, notice any tension in your body, deliberately relax those spaces, and take a few deep breaths. Set aside any thoughts or images and bring yourself back to your present moment in your body. Give yourself the luxury of at least five deep breaths. Hopefully the increased feelings of anxiety will have faded and if they don’t, at minimum you will have given your brain and body a short break from all the stress.

We’ve gotten through every other iteration of COVID related news until now - perhaps a bit bruised and battered, but mostly intact. We can do this again. You can do this again.

As the year comes to an end, wishing you a bit of peace in all the chaos.