5 ThingsTuesday: Feelings / Emotions you felt most often during the Pandemic

The Covid 19 Pandemic is far from over. It has been around for 14 to 18 months (depending on when it hit your region). This is long enough for you to recognise the feelings/emotions you have experienced most often.

Desolation

When the first lockdown was imposed in my city in March 2020, it came at the end of a very busy time. Winter is the social season in my city , Lahore. It is marked by weddings , exhibitions, receptions — events galore! Usually quiet, bookish homebodies, for certain reasons my husband and I were thrown into it full scale.

The empty streets and closed businesses and schools of the lockdown came as a bad shock. It left me desolate, or if you want me to be less dramatic, very sad. These feelings have kept recurring off and on , all through. One reason for this could be that I lost my father to a stroke in June 2020. But for the pandemic, I might have borne this loss better.

Gratitude

Let’s not get too gloomy. I have also seen happy times in the pandemic. Fortunately, my immediate family have all been in the same city throughout. Whenever I see people with family members stranded in different parts of the world, I feel very grateful for my loved ones around me. I particularly try to remember this whenever they get on my nerves. Sometimes there can be too much family time in the pandemic.

Covid 19 has struck a great blow to the global economy. Except for not buying certain non essentials that I feel have become too expensive , I have not suffered any great financial strain. This is another reason why I often feel grateful for my lot in life. This is very good for countering the above mentioned desolation.

Uncertainty and Stress

The major cause of pandemic related anxiety and stress is the uncertainty. In 2020 we waited optimistically for vaccines against Covid 19. We thought they would rid the world of this scourge. In 2021, a great number of people have been vaccinated but new and resistant strains of virus have emerged.

The second, third and fourth waves of Covid with as many lockdowns have left us in a world where nothing is certain. Schools are reopened but closed again when rates of infection surge. You can’t plan a holiday or an event.

Self – knowledge

I don’t know about you , but this year has given me a lot of time to think about who I am and what I want out of life. The answers to these questions still elude me though. I have always been skeptical about the concept of “finding yourself ” but I think the pandemic might have brought me a little closer to that.

Contentment/Perspective

The frenetic pace of modern life slowed down during the past year or so. This has shifted my perspective somewhat. Things that I used to rush about for don’t seem so important anymore.

There were many activities/things that I have done without during this period and not felt their absence. Other things, like get togethers with close friends, I have really missed. This has helped me decide what is really important to me.

All these feelings that I have mentioned keep recurring. The end of the pandemic although approaching is arriving too slowly for my liking.

What 5 things have you felt most often during the pandemic? Do share them with the rest of us.

You can leave a reply in my comments section.

Better still, why not create a post of your own? Just remember to tag it #5things.