Hindsight is 2020: Embracing the new normal?

Hindsight is 2020: Embracing the new normal?

by Sophia Morgan, PhD Candidate Have you ever used the saying, "hindsight is 2020”? Of course, you have. Who hasn't had that moment of reflection, when the past slips into the present, flipping on the light switches in your brain and arresting all your faculties? You pause, catch yourself, as the rush of clarity overpowers you; and then the acknowledgment follows, much more slowly, but profoundly. At that moment you travel back, searching, not for what you missed, for it has now been revealed; but how, just how you were so blind to that which is now so clear. Is this ever a positive experience for anyone?

So, this is 2020! And "hindsight is 2020" is happening now!

This year, our lived realities appear to conceal as much as they reveal. Thus, we don't need to wait until 2021 or 2025 to come to terms with the insights and the foresight today presents. With a conscious state, the choices we make, and the actions we take, we can eliminate unpleasant cycles and habits we wish to break. Of course, being in the moment is not an easy task. After all, everything going on around us is loud and bold, and distracting, and downright disturbing. It’s almost too much for our senses to handle. Over the past several months, for example, words like lockdown, mask, sanitize, distance, quarantine, and caution have laced our daily discourses like yellow tape around a crime scene. How do we even begin to navigate this chaotic mental world?

It is true that perceptually, the human capacity to understand events and experiences as they transpire is limited. However, what we lack in sensory acuity, we gain in self-reflexivity.

Reflexivity offers the incredible ability to stand outside of our situations and observe ourselves in action. It is like standing on the balcony (in a ballroom) and watching yourself on the dance floor. Reflexivity allows us to become fully aware and, in the moment, it forces us to examine our assumptions, to engage our social world, and question the “new normal” it presents, as life unfolds.

I must say, I was quite elated when my undergraduate research student proposed to study how friendship groups have influenced social functioning in a time of social distancing. I was even more elated when another student agreed to collaborate with me for a study of how we navigate social identities in the home as it transforms into a multifunctional space. This idea resonated with me because of my own experiences of negotiating several roles e.g., mom, parent, daughter, friend, lecturer, and primary school teacher, seemingly at all at once. In these negotiations, I can only describe the internal pressures I encounter, as the weight of the “new normal” bearing down on me like a ton of bricks. I have found, however, that efforts to make sense of context, my feelings, and others, have been instrumental to fashioning ‘suitable’ responses to the challenging every-day situations as they emerge. Here is where self-reflexivity prompts me to ask, what should we be observing, what are we overlooking, what should we be noting about our social world... what should we be paying attention to? What questions should we be asking? What is obvious but not obvious?

"But, in "hindsight", my own reaction provided a reflection of my current emotional state; discouraged and dispirited about all that is happening in the world around me."

When I was asked to contribute to this series, I was encouraged to "write something from a positive psychology perspective." Now, positive psychology is the "psychology of happiness;" well, that's how persons describe it in short; but really, in a nutshell, it the study of positive experiences, positive traits, and positive institutions. It's funny, but my first reaction was, “No way, how do I spin a tale of happiness in this time of distress. That's the job of a comedian or a magician!” But, in "hindsight", my own reaction provided a reflection of my current emotional state; discouraged and dispirited about all that is happening in the world around me. Writing this piece, however, has reminded me of the importance of engaging rather than deflecting my social and mental realities. I’ve come to terms, that it IS important to see how our context is impacting us, but more it is how we respond. The business community urges us “to pivot”; the techies and our health officials tell us to “embrace the new normal”, and what are we telling ourselves? I say we need to focus on “reflexivity.” Yes?