Soon We’ll Be Free at Last! But Does Anyone Else Fear Life Going Back to Normal?

For some a day to savour, for others a day to fear

To say the pandemic hasn’t been fun is an understatement. Freedoms have been entirely restricted. No travel, no friends, no eating out, no theatre, no festivals, no drinks in a beer garden, no nothing, not even toilet roll at one point. Now, going out for a long walk at a park feels like a treat. Socialising is a remote-only affair. The pandemic has been with us for so long everyone has begrudgingly adjusted to ‘the new normal’.

The world is in a weird kind of limbo, no one wants this situation, but no one has any control over it continuing. Yet, with the deployment of mass vaccine programmes, a semblance of normality doesn’t seem out of reach. We’re getting close to the light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

For many, that day can’t come soon enough.

You can almost hear people scratching at the doors, desperate for life to get back to normal.

The day the pandemic is officially over will be glorious; uncertainty will be replaced with certainty — we can make plans once again. Travel! Friends! Eating out! Festivals! Drinks in a beer garden! Freedom at long last!

The tension that has built up for over a year will be released like water bursting forth as a dam opens up.

For others, that day is one filled with fear.

Build back better

The pandemic has been like pressing the pause button on the film we call life. And for lots of people, that pause button has allowed them to make positive changes to their lives.

It’s now been so long living with restrictions that, in reality, life is still in ‘play’ mode; we’ve just changed channels.

On this channel, working from home has been a game-changer for many. It gives people more time to exercise, more time to cook, more time to pursue personal interests.

The type of stuff that you would love to do but couldn’t as you were stuck in traffic on the daily commute, or you had your face in someone's armpit on a train.

In short, working from home provides a better work-life balance.

The fact there have been so many calls to ‘build back better’ and create a new normal suggests lots of people didn’t like how things were before.

So while everyone wants their freedom back, there are aspects of the new channel, this ‘new normal’ that lots of people want to maintain.

And therein lies the fear.

What happens if everything goes back to normal, and the positives from the new normal blow away in the wind?

The danger is that old habits die hard, so while lots of people have developed positive habits, as soon as restrictions are loosened, it could be all too easy to revert back to how things were before. The old normal may well become the new normal.

An opportunity

This shouldn’t be something to fear, though. Having switched channels, it should be seen as an opportunity. Without the pandemic, we would never have had this opportunity to take stock of our lives and see things from a different lens.

Now that you have, your aim should be to take the new you into the new normal.

It wasn’t all bad before, just like it isn’t all bad living through the pandemic. We can always take the positives from any situation. And so there should be nothing to fear about getting our freedoms back. After all, what is life without freedom?

Personally, I want to maintain the better work-life balance the pandemic has provided, and I’m sure lots of other people do, too.

Focus on what you liked about your life before, what you like about your life now, and ideally combine the two when things do open up again. If you can the loosening of restrictions won’t be something to fear. It will be a moment to savour as a new and better you is launched back into the world.