Austin Snowmageddon Reflection and Experience

Last week was rough to say the least. For those that don’t know I am located in Austin, TX, and we were hit with a record snowstorm last week. Yes. SNOW in Texas. We see it every couple of years, but nothing like this. Waking up today and trying to get back in to the swing of things has been really hard. Instead of diving straight back into work, I felt I needed to externalize a few things on my mind as a way to start processing and moving forward. I’ll start off with some reflections and end with my personal experience. Also I have provided some resources at the end for those who want to help or need help.

Reflections:

1. We just went through some T R A U M A. Even if you have water and electricity and things feel back to “normal”, your body could still be in fight or flight mode. Be gentle with yourself, take the time that you need to heal. If you feel foggy headed, scatter brained, not able to focus, tired, sad, or confused, know that you are not alone. Our bodies are still going to be recovering from this for awhile and that is perfectly normal. Talk to your partner, reach out to friends, reach out to your manager and express how you feel. Do not think you are supposed to return to life as normal because it’s Monday. Most of us were quite literally fighting for our lives last week.
2. All of these feelings are exacerbated by the fact that we are in a pandemic. This pandemic has forced us to be in our homes more than ever. Our homes have become a place of not only life and work, but also safety and refuge. Once power started to go out, houses got cold, water stopped running, we lost trust in our homes and suddenly had conflicting feelings. It was hard to reconcile feelings of safety and trust with the need to survive. Whether you realized it or not, we all had to internally battle with these conflicting feelings last week. If I leave my freezing house to seek shelter, I might get exposed to covid. If I dont leave my house, I might get hypothermia. Which decision is the right decision? We had to battle with this and it takes a tole on us mentally. Honestly, it still might feel like we don’t have trust in our homes. Again, our bodies are still processing these conflicting feelings, and that is perfectly normal! To help start processing some of these feelings I recommend journaling, talking to a friend, crying, laughing until you cry — whatever you need, do it, but find a way to externalize these feelings. Reach out and ask for help. Don’t try to put on a face…