Readjusting to Life Post-Covid OR How Should Life Post-Covid Look Like?
By Cecilia Yee

---

Singapore – On 24^th March 2022, we were informed that in five days,we can go mask less outdoors, now ten people can gather at any one time versus five, venues can fill up to seventy five percent with masked participants as well as no social distancing. 

Is this truly a sigh of relief?

When we hunkered down for the first round of circuit breaker in April 2020, we did not know how to conduct ourselves – work from home was mainly a concept for the cosmopolitan few, home-based learning for the mainstream schools was not nearly a concept yet for students as well as educators.

Do you recall how we experienced the confusion and the frustration?

Then the hurried preparations to accommodateour home offices and classrooms? 

The ceasing of all social activities?

Following that, we were mostly stuck at home with our spouses, partners, children and other family members for extraordinarily long stretches of time.

Added to that we hadthe direct and indirect impacts on our businesses and our lives.

And the loss continued on with no end in sight.

Do you remember how you felt when we were forced to alter our habits and routines? 

The majority of us  felt anxious and stressed, a handful depressed.

Back to the Present

With the easing of safety management measures announced in March 2022 we can now begin to ponder and think about unlearning what we had struggled with over the last few years.

Yet that struggle had become our new stability within the instability we had experienced.

The main question we are all facing is how do we begin reverting to a pre-pandemic life? 

What are we anxious about?

What new habits and routines we have acquired over the last 2 years do we need to let go of? 

What will we miss from the era of Covid safety measures? 

What will you not completely go back to doing? 

It’s very normal to feel this type of anxiety right now.

Barnard College president Sian Beilock, a cognitive scientist, who researches anxiety for a living, is feeling it herself:

“When you haven’t practiced in a while, anything can become harder or less fluent.”

Managing Change

As counsellors, we would like to reiterate the importance of allowing and expecting a period of adjustments and transition.  Change is not about shifting from one state to another seamlessly or instantly. It is about shifts, rearrangements, modifications, tuning and fine-tuning and evolutions. 

Sincechange does not occur overnight,discomfort is a guarantee. It is also not a linear process. We often go back & forth in this adaptation process.

An important part of change is to acknowledge it.

Since Covid descended upon us it is important for us to reflect & introspect:

• What were you happy about?
• What were you not too happy about?
• Whichparts of the past two years will you miss?
• What have you discovered about yourselfand your loved ones?
• What has happened to your relationships?
• What new skills have you acquired?
• What are you grateful for?
• What are you relieved about?
• How have your career and life vision changed over the past 2 years?
• What are the new boundaries you want to put in place for family, friends and other obligations?

Throughout this period of adjustment and transition, we need to be mindful that others around us are going through the same experiences and experiencing different levels of discomfort. 

Relationally this transition can have different meanings, frustrations and stages for all of us.

Going Back to a New Normal

Here are 4 questions to bear in mind as you reboot:

1. Are your expectations realistic?
2. Are you in touch with how you are feeling as you readjust?
3. Are you able to look at the positives more than the negatives?
4. Are you pacing yourself?

If you feel you are struggling  with this transition, it is imperative for us to reach out to share with a loved one or to see a professional to ease the way back into new habits and routines. 

After all, as a famous Chinese proverb says: “A wise man adapts himself to circumstances, as water shapes itself to the vessel that contains it.”