Same boat, different sailors

“We are all in this together.”

“I know how you feel.”

“Working from home is the best/worst, right?”

A word of the pandemic days is “empathy.” Most definitions evoke a deep emotional understanding of another’s problems or feelings, placing oneself in another’s position, and having the ability to feel what another might be experiencing from their vantage point.

It is a generous emotion, but the main assumption of empathy is that we can know, or even understand, what others experience. In practice, we believe this gives us the ability to know what may be best for the other. While we are learning to understand, manage, and live with COVID-19, we do so our own way. In addition to ripping up daily life on all dimensions, the pandemic reminds us of how little we truly know — sometimes even about ourselves and those closest to us.

What binds us is shared vulnerability: the state of having little resistance to an outside agent; exposure to the possibility of being attacked or harmed, physically or emotionally.

We therefore need more than empathy from each other but also from public and private sector leaders. We need a deep understanding of the impact and consequences of feeling vulnerable and concerted action to protect us, not just economically, but also mentally.

COVID-19 offers an opportunity to address mental health issues in a way that centuries of research, writing, and practice have failed to do. It allows us to pull back the veil of stigma and see that we don’t always have to show others how great and powerful we are. We can struggle and admit it. We are now collectively more at ease to talk about, address, and seek treatment for mental health issues. There is great power in this joint vulnerability.

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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.