Leave home without authorization, go back to work, have your children looked after, deconfinement signals a return to a more normal life. But strangely, this prospect makes us uncomfortable. As the approach of going back to the daily normal life, the concern grows. Because deconfinement is not a return to normal, but rather a leap into the unknown.
A Split up from our former life!
To think that we are going to go back to our former life is an illusion. “There is a before and an after”. We did not understand that the lockdown was like a new phase in life, or an event, like any events, whether emotional, linked to an accident, criminal attempt or the occurrence of a serious illness. There is no going back to life before. Health protocols in schools, social distancing and barrier gestures in the company, wearing a mask in public transport, life will change. In the office, it’s hard to imagine a relaxed atmosphere around the coffee machine. How will colleagues react? Are we all going to look at each other as walking coronaviruses that we shouldn’t approach? This is the big uncertainty!
Instable Benchmarks!
Work, school and us too, are no longer the same. After several weeks of lockdown, some people no longer recognize each other. “Usually calm people have shown nervousness, irritability, a variation of their being which surprises them”. All the benchmarks of life before are vanishing slowly. “For years, we have lived with an impression of immortality. The virus confronts us with our biological weaknesses”, as some statements are made. All our certainties are faltering.
Break out of the protective buble!
Get out of your house, but at what cost? “We have a representation of the others’ body as a body carrying the virus of death”. For weeks, we built a family comfort zone. Disinfected and stored, our fireplace has become a weapon of protection against the outside. “We were told for the upcoming weeks that the only place where we were safe was at home”. And there, we were told “you will still not be safe but go out because the economy must restart “. If there are sanitary gestures to protect us on the level of the body, what will be the sanitary gestures on the psychic level?
Building on new values!
It is necessary to allow a transition time. When the children return to school, they will need to tell the story of how they experienced lockdown, it can be very different from one person to another. Be careful not to focus on catching up on the school curriculum. In companies, beyond disinfecting offices, it would be necessary to organize relaxation times, to that everyone can free themselves from what they have experienced. What to hang on to in this next world?
During the confinement, we stopped running everywhere. This is something that will stay. We learned to live differently, freed from our overbooked agendas. Living together as a family, talking to each other better, listening to each other, values that will be invaluable aids for this new leap into the unknown.
Reference: https://www.euronews.com/2020/05/09/life-after-lockdown-will-our-social-habits-be-changed-forever
