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When the Quest for Happiness Happens Right at Your Doorstep
Finding joy in the mundane
Finding joy in the simplest moments of everyday life has never felt more natural than it does now, after the pandemic. Here’s how the world taught me to see it.
Retreating into the cocoon: a pandemic journey
I know we’re not all battling the same things. But for me, life hasn’t been the same since the pandemic.
Like many, I lost my job, my independence, and the confidence that I had built over a decade abroad. I found myself moving back at my parents’ house, in my homeland — a move that should’ve felt “easy” but didn’t. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so grateful for my parents, but I felt like a stranger in my own country, and going back home as an adult, isn’t always easy.
But I felt so scared after losing so much that my new life, away from everything, became a safe cocoon I feared to leave.
What happened to me? Me — so strong, so independent, always out and about, dynamic, energetic, the explorer. Suddenly, I was afraid to take the car out. Afraid to talk to people. I lived anxiously, obsessing over details, letting them turn into new fears.
And that cocoon, where I had let another version of me evolve, became a safe…
