Reconnecting with Friends After the Kids Return to School
For many people, today’s world is starting to feel like it was pre-pandemic. But that’s not the case for everyone. Have you lost touch with some of your favorite people in the last two years? Do you miss the conversation, the laughs, the connection with other humans?
If the answer is yes, it’s time to reconnect with your pre-pandemic people.
Here is our best advice if you are feeling nervous or hesitant to reach other to your friends.
Take Care of Yourself
It’s been a long couple of years by this point, and everyone needs a bit of self-care right now. Whether that’s spending time alone and resting, or catching up on your social life, it’s important that you shift out of survival mode and back into living your best life. Mindset is an important part of making this happen. Self-care starts with the understanding that you can care for others better when you first take care of yourself. Once you are in a good, healthy place, then you are ready to reconnect with your friends.
Taking Action
Now is not the time to be passive, if you’d like to reconnect with your social circle. Many people are still in hermit mode and those who aren’t, may not want to bother others right now. With everyone walking on eggshells about socializing, someone has to be the person to go for it! Why not you? The worst you’ll experience is probably a friend or two letting you know they aren’t ready yet and that’s okay. Your friends that are also craving to get back to some sort of new social normal, will thank you for being the one to spearhead this effort.
Be Respectful
Everyone is in a different place now. Life looks a lot different to many families than it did pre-pandemic. If you make the extra effort to find out where people’s comfort levels are, you’ll have more success when it comes to attendance. Sometimes, just knowing that your friend is open and respectful is enough to make a hesitant individual decide it’s worth the minimal risk to reconnect and get back to living.
Quiet the Monkey Mind
There are so many reasons our monkey mind chatter can make up that will cause you to hesitate, procrastinate, or stall in your intentions. This is normal. Yes, people still like you.
Yes, this is probably going to be awkward in the beginning.
Yes, you are out of practice.
However, you may be surprised how quickly you and your crew settle into conversation and activity. It’s that first speed bump that causes the most anxiety. After the ball gets rolling, you begin to wonder what the big fuss was and what took you so long to reach out.
It may feel like there are a million reasons why you shouldn’t touch base with your friends, but that’s just your monkey mind talking. You need your buddies, and they need you. Why don’t you shoot out a few text messages today just to check in and see how everyone is doing? Then you can use that reconnect as a foundation to bringing the gang back together.
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