A crisis on an individual level

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A crisis on an individual level that invites each one to sort out to get rid of waste and to create an “After” respectful of one’s Being and Humanity

Individually, the crisis we are experiencing and the long time of confinement it imposes on us gives us the opportunity to connect with ourselves. In the emotional wringer of these few weeks, we can really listen to what is essential for us, we can choose what we want to invest energy on, we can free ourselves from what hinders us. It requires us to critically examine what drives us, what even agitates us, what fundamentally motivates us.

Several questions emerge

Humanly speaking, what does it mean to be in relationship with a person? To have more and more contacts in the same place? But with what depth vs. what superficiality? What place is there for each person in a whole? Is it necessary to shake hands, to kiss, to touch to greet each other? What is the meaning of making a gesture if it is by loo king elsewhere, by not being present? To look straight in the eyes is to welcome the other, to recognize him/her as a person.

What does it mean to be connected? It is quite possible to be connected to others without being physically with them. If the exchanges are attentive, focused on the essential, written and voice messages, calls and video conferences constitute a link. Listening, caring and empathy are essential to the link. A sincere interest in the other in his or her uniqueness as well.

What does it mean to be alive? How does everyone experience it? Even so, what is the price of life?

These are probably haunting questions from the beginning of the confinement. First, the astonishment due to the very brutal change of habits, the loss of personal, family and professional landmarks and rituals.

And the anxiety about a future with an unknown deadline, the fear for one’s health and that of one’s loved ones. Fear of one’s professional and financial future, and even of one’s present. Remaining frozen, looking for information, non-existent, partial. Finding a thread to be able to act: to set up telework (when the job makes it possible), to organize teaching, to carry out the possible administrative steps…

An d to ask oneself, with ever greater force: what does it mean to be alive? What makes everyone feel alive? What does it mean to be free, to feel free? How important, how essential, how vital is it?

To act freely is to take care of oneself, as much as possible. And moreover, it is about helping to take care of others. To consent to the lack of freedom of movement is of great value. It saves lives.

To be free is to free your mind from panic, from negative thoughts that prevent you from thinking. It is to welcome within oneself, preciously present, one’s thoughts, one’s values. It is to give them a large place. Being aware of what is essential for oneself, of one’s inner resources is one of the means to reinforce one’s freedom.

These days and weeks out of the world “before” are a precious time to imagine the world “afterwards” and to prepare oneself for it

To discern what is essential, important and superfluous in the world before, requires listening carefully to oneself. In actions and interactions, which ones are carried out for oneself? To really please oneself? Which are those that respond to a social norm, an injunction?

Leaving the world before is to free oneself from the weight of norms and injunctions, it is to put “I” at the center of the game. Not for selfishness, at all. By commitment. To take care of oneself because no one else can do it. Because to be well is to send a positive signal to others that can help them change their view of themselves.

This crisis requires a great deal of self-awareness and presence, here and now, to oneself

Effectively implementing barrier gestures, for example, requires anticipating each gesture in order to chain them together as well as possible. It even requires being completely focused on the realization of the gesture itself, at least until it becomes a new reflex. This crisis is an invitation to a great awareness of all the automatisms that govern our daily lives. Physical automatisms of course. By going further and holding up a mirror to oneself, behavioral and psychological automatisms.

It is in this area that there is a lot to sift through to free oneself from what does not belong because it does not correspond to the individual in his uniqueness. The danger would be to remain identical in exit and entry, without having chosen. The opportunity is to find oneself, to give birth to oneself, a little or a lot. The resources exist in everyone. Making the most of the time in the working room allows one to (re)appropriate them to make them accessible.

To take advantage of these few weeks, it may be time to call upon a revealer to give birth to oneself.