20 Things You Can Control During the Pandemic: An Exercise

With shelter-in-place orders and a challenging economy, it’s not easy to feel like we have much agency in our own lives, which can be frustrating and anxiety-producing. But there may be quite a bit more than first meets the eye.

Here’s an exercise to do in your journal to renew your sense of self-empowerment. Read each numbered prompt that describes an area in which you have some control, and first write down your thoughts about the ways you’re already doing it well; then, capture how you could take it to the next level if you’d like to. You can do all 20 prompts in one sitting or do one each day during your reflection time.

What you can control right now

1.   How empathically you manage and lead your team 

2.   Whether your beliefs and mindset serve you and others

3.   Whether you respond mindfully or react out of fear to the economy

4.   Where you invest your attention

5.   What you need and want to do just today, which doesn’t require a long-term plan that may be unavailable right now

6.   How reasonable your expectations of yourself and others are

7.   What you say yes or no to

8.   Who you decide to help right now 

9.   How you engage online with politics and pandemic news

10.  How effectively you regulate your own emotions

11.  Your daily outdoor exercise

12.  Whether you seek to find and enjoy the positive parts of this pause 

13.  Whether you numb to escape or listen deeply to your own needs

14.  If you decide to become more or less resilient

15.  What principles you live by and what matters most to you now 

16.  How you take care of your mind, body, heart and soul

17.  How you treat strangers when you’re out for essentials or exercise

18.  Whether you diplomatically safeguard your own physical boundaries when you’re in public

19.  If you leave a Zoom meeting better for having had you in it

20.  What others will remember about you from this period

When you’ve completed journaling about each item on the list, notice how you feel. Calmer? Grounded? Energized? More creative? Review this list and your journal entry when you need a boost and add to it, as desired. Bonus: Find more things you have control over – the more you search, the more you’ll find.

Bottom line: You have more power than you’re using.