We are in a shared experience, one that we can all relate to and therefore one that gives us all a unique opportunity to really talk about how we are feeling, knowing that we will be understood. Just knowing that others feel the same can make us more resilient.
We have seen the most incredible displays of compassion and human kindness with so many taking up volunteer roles to help the vulnerable in their community; hundreds stepping in to do food shopping and deliveries; children decorating windows with rainbow pictures to cheer up other children they have never met before (and adults too) who happen to walk past their home.
And then there's the creative solutions that people have come up with - ideas that may already have been there have now become mainstream. It is now commonplace for families and groups of friends to connect en masse via Zoom, FaceTime and other such platforms, just to see one another, just to feel a part of something.
It feels like in coming together over this collective experience, we have become united not just as a country but as a people and that is truly incredible.
But trauma, confusion and anger are unfortunately also features of this experience. Many people are literally alone with nothing but media to occupy them. Many more are trapped in their own homes with their abuser or the person they are in a dysfunctional relationship with. At the same time both alcohol and drug use is on the increase.
There is no doubt that the situation brings stress to us all and it becomes a case of whether or not your coping mechanisms are strong enough to overcome them. Many feel unsafe and this also registers in the body, changing the way you see and perceive threat.
But we know that connection with others can massively alter how we are feeling and how we cope. Those deep, meaningful talks about how we are experiencing things, how we are feeling, really matter, both to us and the person we are talking with. We need to have those conversations now and we need to keep having those conversations afterwards. Let's not lose this moment.
