Our interior – well-being and relationships with others
Isolation, quarantine, and recommended limitation of social contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic meant that many people found themselves permanently using their home/apartment. The intensification of contacts with others in the domestic space often forced different ways of using rooms (adapting to new tasks, changing their functions), shifting the boundary between private and shared zones, and loss of privacy and intimacy. Changes in the domestic space affected both relationships between residents and each person individually.
How to cope in this situation? How to take care of your well-being?
Anita Basińska from the School of Form at SWPS University and Kasia Szczepaniak from the Akademia Znajomych initiative discuss solutions in three key areas in their presentation.
1. Me-us-space
Reflections on well-being and observations of changes in the domestic space, supported by research in Poland and abroad, show us that the following are important:
- staying in contact with others using new technologies,
- using these technologies for personal and physical development,
- allocating time for being offline and ways of sharing space.
2. Remote work
The most important issues related to working from home (workplaces, presence of others including children) and examples of daily practices that can facilitate and improve its execution:
- arranging a workplace,
- setting boundaries,
- privacy issues,
- creating work-related rituals.
3. Remote learning
The well-being of young people is a very important issue, as for them the lack of meetings with their peer group is particularly painful. Students and staff from Bednarska Real School suggest what can help:
- conversations and outings with loved ones (walks, trips out of the city)
- physical exercise (dancing, training, etc.) and developing interests or new passions
- new rituals and a daily schedule that we try to stick to.
