My partner has stayed in Mayo Clinic for a couple of days, and the hospital doesn’t allow visitors during covid-19. It’s somehow lucky that the situation has happened in Rochester, MN, with the world-famous hospital around, but not in Montana or other places on our road trip. At this point, we were glad that we are still in the US, that he can communicate with doctors alone about his body and his insurance.
I can’t imagine if we both live alone, like some of my other friends currently during the lockdown. What should a person do to deal with the physical and mental situations? Human beings are social animals. We mostly need other people around for the proof of our existence, for comfort, for meaning, or meaninglessness. Even though, as an individual, we seem to have everything we need for daily life, many of us would still feel lonely easily.
If there is no covid-19, a person can just go to a coffee shop or a bar to meet strangers; or join in some events with specific topics s/he probably is interested in. That is the go-to activity if the loneliness hits. Nowadays, because of covid-19, a person can’t even meet his/her family. The default activities become idley browsing social media and then feeling even more lonely. That’s hurting.
Wearing masks and keeping a social distance, protecting others and ourselves as a whole turns out to be the new normal. People who don’t follow the latest social habit could be considered to behave irresponsible to society. It’s easy to force our bodies to follow new social norms. However, our minds haven’t adjusted to the new order that is needed. What once was the most robust feature of human beings, now is the most vulnerable.
It’s relatively easy to build a healthy diet and exercise habits as long as one is self-disciplined. Follow clear and basic rules for natural human bodies, such as: less fat, more vegetables and fruits, and meat with enough good fat and protein, vitamins, natural fiber, minerals, etc.
Struggling at social-distancing keeps us away from our friends and families. Connecting to others by messaging or video calls are strongly needed. Sometimes I can feel that mild anger from friends if I didn’t reply on time as they expected. Putting our emotions on others brings uncertainty that is not our intent. It’s not a thing we can manage ourselves like building a new diet habit.
How can we adjust our mental model for the new normal? Can we buy some existing recipes to meet our emotional needs? Perhaps, people who figure it out can also provide their suggestions and new recipes for the new social good.