Outside, empty streets closed schools and commercial establishments and the feeling of inhabiting a ghost town. From the inside, lives became more urgent given the deprivation of freedom and real contact with a world that was not virtual.
The coronavirus pandemic and the social isolation imposed by it brought us more than the fear of the population's illness.
Deprived of walking the streets, seeing and, more than that, hugging friends and family, in addition to being unable to attend shopping and leisure centers as often as desired, we make time for an important reflection: what have we prioritized in life?
On the web, numerous testimonies pop up that contact with the other is missing and stirring emotions. Add to that the challenge of learning to be more intimate with technology and needing to use video conferencing applications to be able to converse or work with those who were always around before.
Fortunately, social media has helped to connect therapists and those who choose to ask for help. At this crucial time, many offer free virtual care.
Psychiatrists, psychologists, and psychotherapists assess that the distress reported by many people during social isolation is a mental response to the feeling of scarcity. “Desire often comes from lack. This explains, for example, why not everyone wants a department store bag, but many covet the imported brand”, exemplifies psychologist Daniela Queiroz, a specialist in positive psychology.
According to her, this is an opportune moment for us all to reflect on what we have been aiming for and how we have built our lives. “Observing, through scarcity, what is, in fact, important for us, beyond the excess of shopping, information, excess of ego. What we need now is more love, human warmth, what is really not abundant”, says the professional.
more moments
My Psychiatrist Jaqueline has a similar point of view. For her, the imminence of loss awakens us to what is really valuable. We perceive moments that we have stopped living. Even parents, who work to provide a good school, to pay for an English course, are now seeing how valuable contact with their children is. In moments of recollection like the one we've been through, we learn to value what matters and give other perspectives a chance, she said.
When everything passes...
When it's all over, let's love each other, hug, and kiss more. We will value the importance of holding each other's hands. Let's care less about disagreements. Let's value each inspiration more. Let's give thanks for each day that we can wake up and be free. Let's connect with nature, inside and outside of us. Let's value our time more with those we love. When all this passes, we will be less isolated and more integrated. We will have learned to take care of ourselves and each other.
What I think about it:
Before all this isolation was present, I – like many of those who now read me – lived, in a way, on a kind of autopilot for a lot. From home to work, from work to home, and between shifts a meeting with friends, an hour of gymnastics, some housework, and a little movie on TV.
It only took two, three days at most, of confinement, for the chips to start falling. No! Life doesn't deserve to go unnoticed! I started to observe friends, neighbors, acquaintances, famous people, all over the world with an almost irrational urge to be more present, in themselves and with others. It was each one's life-giving the message. With me, it was no different.
I was (and still am) remaking myself and awakening to things that really matter: looking more inside myself, talking and seeing (how important this is!) who we really love, taking care of the garden more and looking less at the mess , to notice how time outside passes slowly and we, in the turmoil inside, almost never notice. Nothing will ever be the same – neither for me nor for you. Can believe.
Going through, or rather, living this almost-film experience, not walking down the street, going to work, depriving yourself of seeing friends and relatives, all of this will make us better. I believe that. I believe the purpose is to make us see what we really want to be, deep inside. Open our eyes so that we are able to reframe moments, people, needs and, obviously, the way we live and live with our self. I am willing to change. Is that you?
Being happy became an urgency. It's for yesterday, expires in 24 hours. Between constant posts, in a vain attempt to perpetuate moments, faces and mouths are rehearsed in search of clicks, lives shared with the almost real desire to feel something, be accepted, or simply seen. One like there, another here. It even graces the heart, which, still not knowing it has become an emoji, believes it has achieved the gift of the moment. But it doesn't last long. Very little time. Maybe a split second. Or less. Just enough until you see in the feed, in the next instant, other yellow smiles, in disguised filters, that draw more attention and are more convincing. That's when we realize that this Felicidade seems to have fixed its address on the profile that is definitely not ours.
But if happiness were a person, it would be reminding us, screaming and banging on the glass, on this site, calling us for a walk: "Put that cell down!" Happiness can also be a phrase made up of mother and father, wisdom mixed with excess care and love. That we only really appreciate it when we grow up, and we receive from our own children that sincere smile - daily and necessary - when we return home after the extra shift from work. It's the smell of Senator soap, of someone who just got out of the shower, that impregnates your skin after a long and strong hug, the kind you miss, and you don't want to let go anymore. Remember that? It was She, he saw, Happiness, in flesh and blood. I almost certainly think that Felicidade actually lives in a real embrace.
As in the verses of that Jota Quest song: "The best place in the world, It's in a hug, for the lonely or the needy, in a hug it's always warm." Yes, it is also possible to be happy for the ears. It comes softly, in sound waves, mixing rhythms and poetry to the wind. I think everyone should have a playlist of songs that lift the mood, the ones that make you hum loud even with your headphones on.
Life is changing, we need to change too.
ALl images by unsplash.
Just as life is changing, we need to move with it and not be stagnated for any reason. Thanks for this