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The Space Between Then and When

Molly Zemek
3 min readMar 25, 2020

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Photo by Kyle Broad on Unsplash

There is a place we often resist going. We do anything in our power to distract, avoid, hide or numb ourselves from staying there. It is the space between the past and the future, and it is called now.

To find relief during a crisis, like the coronavirus, one of the best things we can tune into is the present moment. The experience of what we have in the here and now. Usually, the reality of life as it unfolds before us is not nearly as bad as we project it to be in the future.

Most of us are healthy, well-fed and in comfortable homes. We are surviving, at least physically. The trouble starts when mentally we spend our time someplace else.

The future is a dangerous place, especially during a pandemic like the coronavirus. It is a never-ending chasm of isolation, deprivation, and death in our mind’s eye. When left to its own devices, the brain will always imagine the worst-case scenario because it is designed to help us detect danger to survive.

Allowing your mind to play in the imaginary sandbox of your future, rather than staying put in the present, is akin to opening pandora’s box.

If you are going to spend time envisioning the future, why not give equal weight to the best-case scenario while…

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Molly Zemek
Molly Zemek

Written by Molly Zemek

I am a chef and life coach who helps people change their relationship with food and alcohol. You can learn more at www.mollyzemek.com

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