Somatic Embodiment
Blog post by Edan Tasca, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying)
It was going to be another Roaring Twenties. The pandemic was going to end. And folks, desperate for contact after so much time in and out of lockdown… well, we were going to party like it was the Roaring Twenties, or as our French counterparts call it, the Années folles (crazy years), a decade famous for many things, including, well, going out and partying (despite widespread prohibition laws!).
Is that happening? At the start of March, Ontario lifted capacity limits in indoor venues. But are we feeling confident to go out and do it up?
When we started opening up the last lockdown, I tried to get together with some friends I hadn’t seen in a few years. We were eager to get together and catch up. But we kept not getting together. We joked back and forth about how much we sucked for not being able to figure out a time when we were all free… or when we were all not just free but also willing to actually go out. We were simply so used to doing nothing — so used to languishing — that it had become second nature.
I’ve recently been excited to start going back to in-person work. But my first reaction was: Wait, I have to get on the subway and go downtown to an office? Seriously? Are we all sure about this? Attempting to “go back to normal” can feel trickier than we thought. This feels like languishing, too.
This low-energy stagnation, called languishing, is a state of limbo, apathy, restlessness, general fatigue, or even emotional emptiness that lasts for a significant amount of time — let’s say for about two years. Languishing isn’t itself considered a mental health disorder. However, it could ultimately lead to more severe symptoms of anxiety or depression. This wasn’t surprising at the start of the pandemic. But at the “end,” it is surprising. The World Health Organization expects the mental health effects of the pandemic to last for years.
Are you languishing? If you’re feeling that going back to normal is hard, there are things you can do to ease the tension. Take solo — which can also double as maskless — walks, preferable in and around wooded areas. Take the time here and there to do something kind for someone. This can be as simple as buying a sandwich for a person experiencing homelessness. Make sure you take a moment to remind yourself of all that you have that you’re grateful for.
Keep in touch with loved ones. Commiserate. Keep wearing your mask to the degree you feel comfortable. Keep up to date on your vaccines to the degree you feel comfortable. And physically distance to the degree you feel comfortable.
Maybe the near future won’t be quite the Roaring Twenties or the Années folles after all. Maybe we’ll just have to settle for trying to party like it’s 1999.
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