Are we going from bad to worse? The path to well-being in the COVID

What effects does the pandemic have today? One hundred years after the last pandemic of the Spanish flu and eighty years after the last Spanish Civil War, we have lived through lucky years of social welfare. The emergence of the Covid is a very strong and disengaging blow for society as a whole, but the concrete effects at the individual level are for everyone and without exception. 

Will our responses be different from previous generations? Apparently, the world has changed a lot in these eighty or one hundred years, and we have seen how time has witnessed the generation of Baby Boomers, the X, the Y, the Z and the Alpha or the new generation Covid. Many sociologists, anthropologists, and psychologists have placed great emphasis on generational differences, but the Covid goes over each of the generations mentioned with frightening cruelty. Our grandparents, despite being the most affected by Covid, already have the intelligence, management, composure, and wisdom to deal with the social, economic, and medical crises it gives them to have gone through before, not otherwise it is so for most of the population.

Why do we have to deal with the same crisis from different points of view? It is said that the most extreme situations are the ones that bring out our true character. Precisely these individual differences in the personality of all of us do not advise making a universal recipe for the management of this crisis. Individuality, added to personal experiences lived previously will tip the balance of management on one side or the other. For some it will be an opportunity or even their first misfortune, perhaps the first crisis, the first family deaths, the fear of getting sick; and for others this whole collection of situations has unfortunately already been assumed by first person for situations lived beforehand, which means we can’t unify a recipe as one-size-fits-all. Some will throw it on their backs, while others will suffer greatly. Therefore, the kind of help that administrations, companies, friends or relatives have to give to others should be greatly customized. We don’t have to treat everyone equally. We need to focus on those who have the most difficulty, because resources are limited.

In times of crisis, can the opportunity become a reality? I really think so, because it is time to look, observe and try to improve things that depend on ourselves. Assuming that it will be a long and heavy pandemic and post-pandemic, it is important, in order to take advantage of doing the things that make us feel good and somehow find the tools that will help us not to despair. The most extroverted people should make the most of social media so as not to fall into irresponsible socialization. The most introverted people can take refuge in good readings. Families can get back to living close to nature, taking advantage of technology and getting away from the noise of the city. We have known for years that big cities are unfriendly places for raising children. 

We must keep in mind that crises cause discomfort in every way, but it is also worth saying that it is time to look for alternatives and do what we had already forgotten, and it is a good time to reflect on how we are, and what is the ‘lifestyle that best fits our way of being”. This can certainly lead to situations that force us to change aspects unimaginable before, but that in the long run will make us regain well-being. It is worth mentioning that this whole situation will make us look at our environment in a very different way and we will once again have the opportunity to care for and love our people as we have not done for a long time. At the same time, it is a great time to meet ourselves again and have good habits for the first time. 

The great crisis that is coming upon us, once the zenith of the pandemic has passed, will unfortunately have to happen so that we can once again have the opportunity to value a new format of simplicity, to reconnect with the well-being of the most banal things, on this path it is worth not letting it pass and exploring again what we had already stopped looking and feeling. In short, rediscovering ourselves and what do what makes us happy.