From graduation, to marriage, to new jobs to the birth of our children — we’re no strangers to major life changing events. While these create sea changes in our lives, they’re also our greatest opportunities for growth. This pandemic is no different.

In Volume 11 of this guest series, Psychotherapist, Dr. Francis L. Battisti and Nutritionist, Dr. Helen Battisti help us channel our own resilience in the face of major transition.

For over 10 years, they have worked closely with us on aging concerns and have presented many webinars and in-person workshops.Their newsletter, The Zone, is a weekly mental health and nutrition tip sheet during times of change.

Whenever we experience major transitions in life, a host of emotions, thoughts and behaviors may pour forward. As the Pandemic continues to impact our lives, we must make ongoing transitions. Sometimes finding the balance in the transition may make us feel that everything is random and doesn’t make sense. But upon further exploration, we may recognize underlying patterns and interconnectedness. When you think of previous transitions in your life; graduations, new positions, new relationships or having a baby, you initially experienced a flood of new responsibilities, tasks, ideas and patterns of behavior. As you adjusted to the changes, you probably reached a new balance, creating a new normal. As we continue to adjust to the Pandemic changes, it may be useful to reflect on previous transitions and the personal insights that you have learned. Viewing this transition from a resilient mindset allows you to clarify strengths, identify obstacles and create meaningful plans to move to a new personal balance.

Key Takeaways

• We are living in a time of serial transitions.
• Working toward a personal balance is the goal in life’s transitions.
• Previous transitions of life offer clues of how we handle the Pandemic transitions.
• Further developing a resilient mindset is important in dealing with life’s major changes.

Best Practices

• Maintain a disciplined pace to change.
• Enrich your social support system.
• Take time to reflect, in your own personal way, on past successful transitions.
• Refresh your body and brain by getting 7-8 hours of sleep daily. 

Things to Limit

• Awfulizing.
• A frenetic pace to change.
• Placing too much on your plate.
• Delaying sleep to continue mindlessly searching the Internet.

In summary, as time continues to move on, we need to maintain a focus on our chosen goals. Although we find that things may not be the way we want them to be, we need to have an understanding that setbacks are a part of learning and living. Each action we choose to take or not take today, impacts tomorrow’s outcome.

Quote of the Week 

“Those times of transitions are great opportunities to look for recurring patterns in your life and make adjustments to build on the good and reduce the bad.” – Dan Miller

The paraDocs are Dr. Francis L. Battisti, PhD, Psychotherapist, Distinguished Psychology Professor and former Executive V.P. and Chief Academic Officer and, Dr. Helen E. Battisti, PhD. Registered Dietitian and Nutritionist.

We have developed The ZONE, because that is exactly where you want to be during this pandemic. A place of focused attention to doing exactly what needs to be done to get you to where you need to be. The purpose of The Zone is to provide a weekly mental-health and nutrition tip-sheet during times of change.

If you would like to subscribe to The Zone, please email info@avilainstitute.org and we will get you on the mailing list.