The journey from Lockdown to Liberty
Just prior to full lockdown, we were all practicing social/ physical distancing, shaking hands had ceased to be the formal greeting and trying to find hand wash and hand sanitiser was like…well like trying to find hand sanitiser in a pandemic. Coming out of one I suspect will be similar but this time with more pasta and loo roll available…
Getting back to some version of normal will take its time and that won’t just be physically/practically, it will be mentally as well.
Pre lockdown, I learned social distancing, cleaned all surfaces after use in the office, automatically avoided the person who was coughing up the high street without attempting to cover their mouth and the person who sneezed into their hand then got their money out to pay for a coffee.
Lockdown at home started with all good intentions, we would start doing yoga, drink healthy smoothies for breakfast. Working and schooling from home - timetables/house spaces planned, we can do this, positive, positive, positive! Loads of links and Youtube to exercise, things to do, art! baking!…. Day 3 of lockdown and not sure if yoga is supposed to include screaming…
A lot of people are not good with change especially change that is inflicted rather than chosen. This lockdown period will have had a profound effect on many. Some will have found new hobbies, new healthy routines, found the time out they needed to reconnect with family or themselves, realised they can do without a lot of things and realised there are other things they are missing, like a sense of purpose. Some have already lost their business and livelihood and others currently fearful of losing their jobs if the V shaped recovery we need doesn’t happen. Some have been in a perpetual state of simmering anxiety whilst trying to keep working from home and/or keep the kids schooled and entertained.
Had this situation lasted a couple of weeks, I don’t think that I would have been asking the question as to how everyone feels about coming out of lockdown. Two weeks is a holiday period away from routines of school and work. Six, seven, eight weeks having been furloughed or working from home (with all that entails), 2 hours of exercise a day, not seeing/hugging friends and family is a far longer period and one where new routines have now been formed. Having just got used to them, we are going to need to start breaking them up again in order to get things back on track.
So, change yet again but I think on the whole, we will all have proved our resilience. I think there are those that are itching to get back, those that are so fearful they don’t want things to change until there is a vaccine and those in between! I am sure there will be a sense of relief, but at the same time I think a lot of people holding it together for those around them (and themselves), may just have a stumble and we need to keep an eye out for them. We must all take it in turns to support each other.
We will all have differing experiences born out of one shared experience. Nurses, paramedics, supermarket staff, posties, furloughed, redundant, working from home, isolation, family/no family, home schooling, carer, self-employed, employee or MD…all will have very different feelings.