When we feel lonely or overwhelmed by the situation we are in, we can easily fall into the trap of emotionally distancing ourselves from others. In this post, we’ll look at how to avoid emotional distancing when social distancing.
The effects of the coronavirus have been more far-reaching than most of us could have imagined. Fortunately, we can all successfully help prevent the exponential spread of the Coronavirus.
What we need to do is reduce our social contact with others by practicing “social distancing”.
This means cutting off all unnecessary contact with others even if we are healthy. However, when we spend more time alone or in close quarters with one or two other people, we can sometimes feel lonely.
What is social distancing?
“Stay away from congregate settings, avoid mass gatherings, and maintain distance (about 6 feet or 2 meters) from others when possible.” – CDC
Social distancing refers to steps taken to reduce our social interactions with others to stop the spread of infection. This usually involves limiting all forms of purely social contact and sometimes staying away from work and school even when the person is healthy.
It means limiting the time we spend face-to-face with our loved ones and friends if we don’t live with these groups. This means doing so, even if we personally have no symptoms or are unlikely to have a severe reaction to the coronavirus.
Coronavirus is highly contagious, and it is estimated that 15% of cases require hospital care, with another 5% requiring intensive care unit care. For this reason, social distancing is vital to stopping the spread of the disease.
Social distancing can help hospitals with limited resources and prevent the rapid spread of the virus. Moreover, it can buy time for the global community to find vaccines and treatments and provide vital equipment to help those who need it before more lives are needlessly lost.
Why is social distancing important?
The value of social distancing is starkly demonstrated in the contrasting death rates between South Korea and Italy, which saw 10 people killed by the coronavirus around the same time.
Thanks to social distancing and an effective testing program in South Korea, fewer than 100 people have died from the coronavirus, compared to nearly 5,000 deaths in Italy as of late March 2020. Ultimately, by practicing social distancing, you can save lives.
What is emotional distancing?
Emotional distancing can happen if we live alone, with friends, or with a partner. Typically, we can be tempted to isolate ourselves emotionally when the demands of a relationship or other pressures overwhelm us.
As the above discussion shows, we have a lot to be overwhelmed by right now. Furthermore, practicing social distancing can make us feel lonely due to our physical separation from others.
Fortunately, there are steps we can take to help keep us from feeling lonely. The first step is to realize when we may become emotionally distant.
Below, we outline 3 ways to avoid emotional distancing while social distancing
This will help us all feel connected during these emotionally difficult times.
Practice emotional communication
Spending time alone can help us reconnect with ourselves emotionally. We also have to try to remember that being physically alone does not necessarily mean that we are mentally alone.
We can realize this by practicing feeling emotionally connected by remembering things we have done with others in the past. These can be good deeds people have done for us or good deeds we have done toward others.
We can also feel more connected to people by taking time to think about those we care about as well as ourselves. This can be a small group of people close to you or more broadly.
Simply by being aware of our concern for others and taking time to reflect on this, we can feel more connected to others. We can also get involved in supporting those who are more isolated than us by organizing collectively to reduce our public social contact.
Stay connected virtually
Not being able to see people face to face can be difficult. Fortunately, through video calls, texts, emails, and phone calls, we can feel closer to our nearest and dearest when we’re socially distancing.
It’s a great idea to ramp up this kind of contact as we more strictly socially distance ourselves from others.
In fact, we may find ourselves benefiting from regular contact with loved ones more than we would if we simply could. We can give ourselves space away from those with whom we share close quarters and foster relationships with those farther away.
Practice kindness and gratitude
If we are socially isolated or socially distant from others in our homes, we can become emotionally distant from those with whom we share physical space. We can combat this by being open and honest about how we feel.
Early on, it may be helpful to familiarize yourself with some aspects of “quarantine” that you may find difficult. While we can tend to avoid things that make us feel uncomfortable, coping with avoidance can be unhealthy.
Practicing kindness toward each other and ourselves can help make us feel closer to each other. Do you find yourself feeling distant or uncomfortable with the people you share space with?
