With all the recent changes that have happened in the world and our personal lives, we can’t help but wish for things to get back to how they were. But unfortunately, it will take some time before life can get back to normal and we may even have to get used to doing life in the new normal. So since we cannot make the world go back to how it was, we may as well choose to be joyful in the present. Here are 4 tips to help you find contentment in the new normal:
1. Show grace to yourself
As weeks turn into months of living in the new normal, our souls and bodies start to grow weary. A lot of us had to make lifestyle changes and adjust our schedules and maybe even have more responsibilities now at work or at home. Even if you work less now, you may still be growing weary. The reason a lot of us may feel tired even if we are not working more is likely because stress and uncertainty are wearing us out.
So we should not expect of ourselves the same level of performance and output as during the normal times in life. We should not set big goals or create long to-do lists that leave no room for a break. We should show grace to ourselves and take breaks as needed. It’s okay to not be as productive as usual during times like these.
Some ideas for relaxation could be reading good literature, such as Christian fiction and non-fiction, spending time in God’s Word, watching a life-giving TV show or a movie, spending time with loved ones, or just taking a nap.
2. Gain perspective
While it’s easy to focus on our own struggles, gaining some perspective may actually help us see how good we actually have it. I was just reading When Calls the Heart by Janette Oke. It’s a story about a girl named Elisabeth who moved to the Canadian frontier to be a teacher. She is faced with struggles such as living without plumbing, electricity, central air or heat, and without any modern-day appliances like a dishwasher or a washing machine. Since she was living by herself, she had to go outside and split the wood to stay warm in the winter, and she also had to heat up water on the fire stove if she wanted to take a bath. She had no car, no cellphone, no laptop, and no TV. Reading about her coping with those challenges and actually finding contentment made me realize how blessed I am for just having water and electricity in my home!
What do you appreciate in your life right now?
3. Wire Your Mind to Be Grateful
We all probably have heard that we should be counting our blessings and be thankful for what we have. But the actual benefit of doing that is not found in just listing the things you’re thankful for once, even though it may make you feel better at the moment. The actual benefit lies in cultivating a habit of being thankful every day by thanking God for the things you have on a daily basis. Cultivating a habit of thankfulness wires our brains to actually be happier and less depressed. And when you are tempted to complain about your life circumstances, you will be more likely to remember all the things that you do actually have and are grateful for!
4. Learn to live in the present
Now it’s easy to look back and think how good everything was before the crisis. It’s easy to look back and idealize the things that we don’t have now. But unfortunately comparing our present to the idealized past will only make us feel worse. In order to adjust to the new normal, we have to move on from the past and decide to be content with the way things are now.
My husband and I actually moved to the US from Germany in the middle of the pandemic, so for us, the past holds even more meaning, as our life before the crisis was life in Germany. And it’s easy to idealize the past and pretend like if we went back to Germany we would find life just the same as we left it off – normal. But the truth is, the world has changed. There is no magic flight ticket we can buy to go back to the “normal-life-land”. Not comparing our present to the past will help us to be happy now.
Living in the future, on the other hand, can also be unproductive. With all the uncertainty, thinking a lot about the future may make us feel anxious. But that doesn’t mean we should not make any plans or set any goals. We just need to hold our plans loose and our deadlines flexible (which is also part of showing grace to yourself). Also, since we don’t know the future, it’s a good idea to actually pray and ask God for wisdom before making any long-term plans.
So we are left with the present. How do we live in the present? Isn’t the present moment gone by the time I’m done writing this sentence? Well, we can describe the present as today as a whole, not just a second that passed while you were reading this sentence.
To be content in the present, it is helpful to have daily routines or at least things that repeat every week on the same day of the week. Doing your weekly cleaning the same day every week or going to church every Sunday adds predictability to your life. Having the same morning and evening routines can make your day more predictable. And when things are predictable, they feel manageable. And in the midst of all the uncertainty, that’s exactly what we need. We need a life that feels manageable, even if it’s one day at a time.
And even though we cannot predict everything in our day, we can rest in the truth that God will be there with us in the things we cannot predict. We can do the best with things under our influence and trust God to take care of the rest.
“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the LORD establishes their steps.”
NIV, Proverbs 16:9
How are you coping with the new normal? Do you have any tips on what has helped you to be more joyful?
