What is silver lining fatigue?
The pandemic has been challenging for many people, in lots of different ways.
My biggest challenge has been keeping my chiropractic clinic open in downtown Toronto, one of the slowest economic centres to recover from the consequences of Covid-19.
Since I haven’t been as busy for the last 18 months, I have had more time to devote to my coaching business, which has been a silver lining.
It has allowed me to complete my systems coaching training, create a series of module-based courses and expand my client base.
It’s also a classic coaching technique to ‘reframe’ something negative into something positive – so I have been doing constant mental gymnastics since March 2020 to turn every disappointment/worry into something positive, and for the most part it has worked but I have discovered there is a limit.
Around August I began finding it harder and harder to do the ‘reframe’ and a few weeks ago the stress peaked. I think since I am a coach, I felt a greater drive to try to constantly find the silver lining but I will admit now that it has taken a toll.
When I shared this with my husband, who is a good listener and is slow to offer advice, he simply said to me “sometimes things are stupid and broken”. It’s a family joke that I’m often muttering ‘stupid and broken’ if I can’t get the can opener to work or something silly like that – and so hearing that from John liberated me from trying to silver-lining-the-hell out of every tough situation.
Why am I sharing this with you?
So that you know sometimes it’s okay to quit the mental game of finding the silver lining.
Sometimes things are just stupid and broken and we do the best we can with the pieces we are left with.
[originally published December 2021]
Dr. Cynthia Chan 