Happier in the COVID Lockdown? A surprising number of people are

Of course, there are reasons for the coronavirus pandemic to make you sad. Maybe you’ve been laid off or precluded from working because your job is at, for example, a hotel or restaurant. Or the closing of schools has made you responsible for childcare 24/7. Or you might have been okay with Stay-Home for a while, but cabin fever has taken over.  Or you contracted the coronavirus. Even if your case is mild, it isn’t fun having a flu-like disease nor being quarantined. And merely hearing of the pandemic-sized death toll sobers even a Pollyanna.

But among the not-so-vulnerable people who will, at some point, have a choice to resume life sort of as we knew it, most—yes surprising to me, most—people I’ve spoken with say they're, net, happier now.

It’s been said that we’re social animals and that we crave freedom. So how can anyone be happy with less human interaction and less freedom: We can’t go to work. We can’t go to restaurants,  concerts, ballgames, bars, nightclubs. In certain jurisdictions, we can’t even invite friends to a picnic in the park. We can’t yet get our wild hair cut.

My Psychology Today article today offers some thoughts on why.

So You Want to Try a More Solo Existence

A previous article described how frequently ignored and rejected people might get better treatment.

In my PsychologyToday.com article today, I turn to what you might do if you’ve decided to be more solo, at least for now.

People As Impediments: Is human interaction overrated?

Involvement with other people is typically seen as central to the life well-lived. 

And for most people, it is. For example, self-love doesn’t duplicate love with another. Many people prefer to be on teams than to work solo. A baseball sent from a ball-throwing machine just isn’t the same as one from a pitcher.

And yet we perhaps too rarely stop to think how often people are impediments to our lives. I offer examples in my PsychologyToday.com article today.

When the World Has Rejected You

The world has permanently rejected, spat out a sad number of people. They’ve lost job after job, relationship after relationship, and in midlife or later, sit in their corner convinced it’s not worth coming out for another round.

Such people dismiss pep talks to give it yet another try. So my PsychologyToday.com article today presumes you’ve decided to go it pretty much alone.