As many of us start carefully re-entering the outside world after over staying at home, all kinds of feelings are coming up.

Maybe you’re feeling exuberant or excited or relieved. Maybe you’re feeling anxious or awkward or exhausted.

They’re all normal experiences. Many of us are having all of those feelings, depending on the day!

How can you give yourself grace during this time? What expectations are you carrying that you can relax? What adjustments can you make that would make the next shift a little easier?

Being intentional with what you invite back in is a great place to start. As you start seeing folks again, having meetings and traveling, notice your energy. Do you really want to do everything in person? How do you feel with certain people, in certain places, doing certain things?

Through all of the terrible things that happened in the last 15 months, a few lessons have emerged.

Many of us have more choice than we realized.
Many of us were more disconnected than we knew.
Many of us really enjoyed the slower pace and quieter days.

Others have been chomping at the bit to get back to the way things used to be!

These are all normal feelings.

As you navigate your own re-entry, bring some intention into your thoughts and your choices. Give yourself the grace to do things in the way that’s most comfortable for you. Give others the same grace.

We all lived through a (hopefully!) once-in-a-lifetime event, and while there’s no playbook for re-entry after a global pandemic, giving ourselves and those around us a little extra grace is a great place to start.