By Kelly Hearn
Examined Life is launching Coming Back, a podcast to explore how Covid changed us, and how we move forward from here. We are in Stage Two of the roadmap out of lockdown the prime minister established earlier in the year. Non-essential shops are opening. Outdoor dining resuming. A successful ongoing vaccination programme is underway, and the April sunshine is welcoming us all outside again. There is a felt sense in the UK that we are finally emerging from what has seemed at times like never-ending pandemic restrictions. While we all hope this is the beginning of the end, there is also an awareness that this is the beginning of the next, new phase.
A recent theme in my clinical work has been heightened emotions around this transition. Several clients report welling up with tears when getting their jab, and a confusion about this response. Others are surprised they aren’t more jubilant about all that is reopening. Some are hesitant to go out. Many are feeling a bit raw. Personally, I burst into my own spontaneous tears a few days ago while watching a favourite family-centred TV drama – it was only then that it really hit me how much I’ve missed the California-based family I haven’t seen in over a year. It is understandable that in some ways we may only be starting to get to grips with the enormous toll the pandemic has taken on all of us. While enduring the home schooling and back-to-back Zooms of lockdown living we had to just get on with it, to ‘keep calm and carry on.’ Now that the kids are back in school and the vaccine is in arms…now that there is just that bit more safety and security…we can exhale…look up…look around…look to each other…to try and make sense of where we are, and where we’re going.
Our podcast, Examined Life: Coming Back, will give time needed for reflection. It feels important to take a contemplative pause here, before rushing out to crowd the local pub or hit the stores to replace the ‘leisurewear’ that has been our uniform for the last year-plus. A moment to reflect, regroup, recentre, before – or as – we reemerge. For some, the existential threat of the pandemic gave us an opportunity to reassess who we are and how we want to show up in the world – some form of personal transformation took place. For others, the frantic pace of activity left no time for this introspection, and an ensuing burnout now ushers in these same considerations. Only now will we see how much we as individuals, and we as a global community collectively affected by the virus, might be changed by it.
On the podcast, we will be talking with public figures and private citizens alike about their personal experiences of the pandemic, both as a way to memorialise what was, and a way to get intentional about what will be. The themes we touch on will be varied: work, relationships, creativity, health, science, transformation, spirituality, connection, divisiveness…a myriad of lenses with which to view the multi-faceted experiences of Covid-19. Because stories are important: we make sense of ourselves through stories, we connect in our stories, and we take comfort in hearing those of others.
Importantly, we will be conducting these conversations face-to-face, as emerging from the online world is a crucial part of the experience. Noticing how this feels, what this brings up. Celebrating the ability to once again be sitting together, and in the very special space that is The Pod at White City Place. We will start recording our conversations in May and are now recruiting participants. If you are interested in sharing your experiences on Examined Life: Coming Back, or merely in learning more about the project, please e-mail info@examinedlife.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you, and to figuring out this next phase together.
*Image credit: Fathom Architects
