Isolation, connection and group care in the face of the pandemic

Curiously, when abandonment and loneliness seemed to be the epidemic of our society, we have to experience this alarm and global pandemic. We all found ourselves dealing with children alone, with over-busy parents.

We did not realize the near abandonment in which we were all dancing alone, without real contact networks, and suddenly this crisis arises with its possibility of change. Suddenly, we are forced to live together, to interact, to look at each other from a safe distance..

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Emotions are also contagious: the importance of the collective

We share spaces and, in them, we share our states. Adults and young people are infected with the emotions that echo in the house, in the shared walls. We have no escape either we calm our discomfort so that this healthy current reaches all the members of the house, or the home becomes an upward spiral of tension.

If we adults smile, we collect our fear, our tiredness, our boredom, then something relaxes in the collective environment. We began to feel better and so did they, the children and young people. Then they smile, propose something funny and the atmosphere relaxes.

The safety distance does not protect us from emotional contagion, emotional currents are regulated and redirected by adults.

As mammals, we need attachment behaviors to calm us down, to regulate us. Acts like looking at each other face to face, perceiving each other close, listening to a warm prosody in the other's voice... make us feel good, fill us with security.

That's why, In these days of confinement, group behaviors and networking have become essential, since they provide us with visual information and the sound of the voice, among others. This makes us feel safe, safe in the connection.

We have to take care of fear, of that fear that floats in the environment from which our bubble walls do not protect us. fear deactivates care. Care and collective connection are what provide us with security and calm. How curious we are. What a paradox to which we are exposed in these times. Solitude and contact.

An opportunity to develop network, community and support despite isolation

We can always learn to handle that complicated emotion that is fear, the lack of security. Numerous collective initiatives are emerging that make us feel part of something much bigger that goes beyond the walls of our homes. The window, a connection of gratitude to those who are caring and fighting for those most affected to come out ahead, helps us to continue to feel like a group, a community.

It's overwhelming to see individual and collective initiatives of help and support, which overcome the barriers and limits of the buildings. The applause and other expressions of solidarity become group meeting points, which remember that we are many and that there are groups fighting, supporting the front line against this enemy invisible. In the help that unfolds, we seek to comfort ourselves and convey the hope that we are not alone.

For example, from the EMDR community, the Children EMDR global Alliance has been developed, where therapists from all over the planet share resources. Within that framework I have written the story I don't see you and I know you're there Coronavirus, and I also know you're going to leave. The illustrations have been made by children of all ages from 7 to 70. In them they share, express their fears and hopes in a genuine and spontaneous way.

Furthermore, in the Txoko of Vitaliza it is possible to find samples of those shared resources.

At the same time, The EMDR Spain Association offers a volunteer service for psychologists and psychiatrists trained in trauma, to intervene in acute stress, collaborating with institutions that offer emotional support and detect cases that require more help. Information can be found on the association's website.

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Conclusion

In collaboration and help, we humanize ourselves and feel comforted as a group. I hope that when we go out freely, without fear, the behaviors of collaboration and care will continue to be present among us, which suppress fear and private interests. I hope that when that moment comes, we remember how simple, simple acts comfort us today, feeling part of a group, of a humanity that is capable of caring. I hope that we will be able to take care of each other and to take care of our fields and seas, our planet.