As a 90s kid, the year 2020 was exceptional, living so much in so little time.
It all started when someone at a seafood market in Wuhan, China was infected with a virus from an animal, the answer about the real species that passed it to humans is probably not settled yet. The first case of Covid was reported in November 17, 2019, I was following the news, but the thought that horrible things were in the way didn’t occur to me, I thought it was as ephemeral as H1N1 was, and that it was a matter of days or months and I will stop hearing of it, little did I know, it was spreading worldwide rapidly, and arrived to my home country by March 2 ,2020, on March 11 the WHO has declared Covid 19 a global pandemic, my anxiety level went higher, it is an alarming situation to be put on, on March 13, 2020, my school announced that we should leave school as it is not safe for us to stay in dorms, people were excited and happy about it which I found it to be a strange response, I got very anxious that night waiting for my family to come and get me, I was so stressed out that I didn’t pack a lot of things that I regreted later, the next morning on my way from Casablanca to Rabat, the weather was very depressing, it looked like that scene from Interstellar, the one where they were driving past vehicles where people were fleeing hunger, too dramatic for you? Well, it was a very depressing comparison for me, and I started to wonder, what is going to happen next?
Arrived at home, I went for a walk near the beach, for I have missed it so much, I next confined myself, with the thought that if we stay 2 weeks indoors, (the incubation duration of the virus), the active covid cases will be easily defined, confined and cured..
March 20, 2020 was declared to be the first day of lockdown in Morocco, at first we were naïve to think that it is going to end after two weeks, it was extended every time, and we had been in lockdown for months.
June 25, was my first day out, what a relief it was, headed to the beach and sat on a bench there appreciating being out, appreciating the smell of the ocean, the splendid view of the waves hitting the rocks, the gentle summer breeze on my face, people around me, kids playing. The lockdown was hard on so many levels, here are some things that were hard to experience for me, and other things that are still present today and I still relate to and you may too:
The fear that my beloved ones could get contaminated with the virus. Humans usually prefer to live in denial of of death and focus on living, but with the deadly virus reaping lives, it kept reminding us that illness and death are just by the corner, and it is not a kind reminder.
Why going without physical touch is hard?
Science has shown that among primates, social touch in the form of grooming and leafing through the fur, has helped a lot in building relationships and friendships, we humans are no exception, we continued to do the same movements, by cuddling or pating each other, these movements were proved to provoke the feel good chemicals in our body aka endorphins that work as pain killers.
I am an openly affectionate person with my beloved ones, I hug and kiss and HH.
Phoebe to Chandler: what does she mean by HH?
Chandler: it means we’re holding hands.
Pheebs: are you the cuttest?
Chandler: I’m afraid I might just be.
I guess one of the worst things about Corona is the deprivation of human touch, here are some facts about our sense of touch (so that you get something from my article, and be back :) )
- Touch is the first sense the foetus developes in the womb starting at around 8 weeks, its importance lies in the central role it plays, being the means to interact directly with the world.
- Our skin is the body’s largest sense organ, it is roughly a two square meters worth of surface and it weights about 3.6 kg and holds millions of nerve endings.
- The touch of another human being (consentual and positive) is able to reduce stress thanks to the release of endorphins with skin on skin contact.
- Touch is a gate to the 7th sense, the emotions. Humans can identify a range of emotions up to 83% with a single touch in the arm, emotions ranging from anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude and sympathy.
- We lose our touch receptors over the course of our lives.
Touch is important for the baby as for the adult, humans who grow without affective touch are more likely to have severe mental issues and difficulties in socializing, not only does touch affect emotional and social behaviors but it is also associated with learning and decision making.
Now that you know how important it is to express love physically, then start to embrace it (after Covid is gone), meanwhile, do not hesitate to tell the people you love how much you appreciate and care for them, thus avoid physical contact in this time of pandemic.
I have for a long time believed that the talk we have with ourselves affects our self love and worth, and I have always been mindful of the way I speak to myself, till I had felt really down in lockdown, and spoke badly to myself, I used to hate looking in the mirror, take selfies, or do video calls, I had many breakouts during lockdown, the ones that leave blemishes on the face ugh, I had always visible pores on my cheeks, that weirdly got larger and uglier and more visible, I didn’t feel good in my skin, I had looked in the internet and it turned out to be normal because of the restrained (if nothing at all) exposure to the sun, and because the air at home is more polluted than the one outside, hair issues was a struggle too, and many other imperfections that by the time the lockdown was near to end, I decided to accept but to also treat, it was an opportunity for me to start getting informed about skin care, and have me a routine, I started to take care more of myself, in the end, it is okay and totally normal to go through periods of doubts, perhaps even necessary, so we can zoom out on the situation and get a clearer image.
I personally have a daily battle with social media everyday, I developed an unhealthy habit, which is that I check social media as soon as I wake up, I watch other people lives through stories before even starting my day, before even acting on my day, you reading this, you might relate to what I’m saying, we struggle with the pressure of comparison, feel the pressure to have a beautiful aesthetic life to show off, there is a strange mix of feelings that goes hand in hand with that screen scrolling for God knows how much time, feelings of jealousy sometimes, of self doubt, feelings of being less than others, because some people have managed or look like they have, despite the crisis, to monetize their time, while I m struggling to not have another anxiety strike, to exercise and have the flat belly everyone is looking for, to bake delicious meals, to have good family time, which is something not everybody is granted, to be productive and all, and if you ignore these calls, you are often left with a feeling of guilt, we often forget that people like to show the right angle, the beautiful facet, the good in the day, and we do that too, people cope with situations in different ways, and people have different backgrounds, you might be comparing your chapter 1 to someone’s chapter 10, we live in a time where our sense of worth is reduced to our productivity, we are forced to think that every second should be put into making and doing something, a wise man once said “doing nothing is something”
Given the spare time I had in lockdown, scrolling through my feed wasn’t a healthy habit, especially that 2020 had a weird power of magnetizing negative, toxic and scary news, the world seemed to fall apart, and catastrophies were falling on us like shower of rain, in such hard times, it is hard to maintain our happiness tolerance/baseline/limit, or whatever you may call it, and by happiness, I don’t mean a rush of happy feelings, but just a routine that sums up some daily stuff that you can do and are able to make you feel alive, well and sane, we keep trying to stay positive, and positive doesn’t have to mean feeling good all the time without respite, it is just to be able to express a healthy range of emotions without suppressing or suffering, every feeling should be felt.
You are doing better than what you are giving yourself credits for. Know that God does not burden a soul beyond that it can bear, this being said, you are capable of overcoming whatever falls upon you.
