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Something That I Will Miss About 2020
I agree with most of the world on this point: 2020 was a bad year. Not the worst, according to historians who say that 532 A.D. was the worst: extreme weather events contributed to crop failures and famines that lasted for some years later. However, for many of the people alive today, 2020 is the worst year that we have experienced. The Coronavirus pandemic has cut us off from other people and from group activities that we had come to rely upon to ease our modern existence. In addition, a greater than usual number of us, myself included, experienced the personal loss of loved ones, which was followed by a more solitary grieving process due to pandemic restrictions on social gatherings including funerals. Yes, the social network became more strained during the pandemic, but the extra time alone was also a gift. And, I received a particular gift: The pandemic gave me the time to learn to be kinder to myself.
Defining kindness as stepping out of my comfort zone to affirm myself and to perform loving gestures for myself led me to review one of the more famous models of human needs: Maslow. According to psychologist Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of human needs, people need to feel love and belonging after their physiological and safety needs have been met. In plainer terms, once people have food, water, and shelter, they will need stable employment and physical safety before they search…
