Experiencing Connectedness in the Wake of a Pandemic

Here we are almost a year into the COVID pandemic, and I don’t know about you, but I miss “normal life”. When I think about the “normal life” I think about going out to dinner, having a coffee with friends, or meeting up with a potential client or colleague.

Photo by Elevate on Unsplash

I miss the noise of a rugby stadium, the clinking of glasses at a reception, the hum of the pub.

I miss the chaos of taking my kids to their different clubs, cricket, swimming, and dance. I miss inviting neighbours to get to know them in our back garden. But most of all, I miss conversation with other people besides my husband and kids.

What do all these situations have in common? They are events when we experience CONNECTEDNESS with another human being.

Humans are social. Our want to connect with others is ingrained in our being. We all know what social connection is; we feel it all the time. Researchers explain “social connection” as the “feeling of belonging to a group or generally feeling close to others” (Why Are We So Wired to Connect?, 2021).

We know this feeling intimately.

So, what happens when we take the ability of social connection away? That’s what lockdown measures have done for some of us. We can no longer experience connectedness with others while being…