Counselor's Corner

I went to the grocery store last night and bought the last two packages of toilet paper (eight rolls total) and the last package of paper towels. I am not stockpiling. We are almost out of these two items at our house. And we’re housetraining a 10-week-old puppy who has a lot of accidents. The anxiety around us is palpable. The coronavirus is now in Texas. We’re in an election year. South by Southwest was canceled. Spring break is next week and we’re trying to cram nine days’ of work into five. If you need to purchase toilet paper or bottled water or hand sanitizer, good luck. On Tuesday, I taught our school’s teachers and staff about mindful self-compassion during the faculty meeting. As “three more days before spring break” anxiety and excitement swirled around us, it was the perfect time to discuss activities that bring us back into the present moment. I started with an exercise. I gave them three minutes to list everything they felt nervous/worried/anxious/scared about. I di

I went to the grocery store in October 2018 to buy bottles of water for the boys to use at school during the citywide water ban. There was not a water bottle or can – flat or carbonated – on the shelves. Any that remained in the store (at approximately 7:40 AM the day the ban went into effect) were in shopping carts as people lined up to stockpile as much water as they could grab. I saw one woman who had four giant cases of water bottles and several boxes of carbonated water in her cart. There were no other items in her cart. I wondered if she had any awareness that (1) other people might also have need for bottled water, (2) she was preparing for a “catastrophe” that was predicted to dissipate in a few days once the filtration systems resumed regular operations, and (3) she would be storing and drinking from her stockpile for years while her fellow human beings (e.g., my children) who needed bottled water that day would be unable to access it. Anxiety and panic cause us to move into