What Your Post-Pandemic Fantasy Says About You
Anticipating joy is good for your mental health
Quick, don’t overthink it: What are you most looking forward to doing when things get a little easier? Is it eating at your favorite restaurant? Drinking too many cocktails and then taking a cab home? Booking a day at a spa? Dropping your kids off at their fully vaccinated grandparents’ home for the night? What’s one thing you’ve been longing to do — just one! — that would help restore your sanity?
My number one post-pandemic fantasy is entertaining at my house again. I can’t stop thinking about what that will look like when it finally happens — and even without knowing exactly what that will be, it feels amazing to make a plan, and specifically to make plans for fun.
Cultivating anticipation of something fun through planning can be even more satisfying than the event itself. A 2010 study found that while vacations had little effect on long-term happiness, people were generally happier than their peers just before going on holiday. Elizabeth Dunn, a happiness researcher, calls this sort of pre-event anticipation “savoring,” and she strongly urges us to go all in.
I’ve found that there’s so much savoring to do with my post-pandemic dinner party fantasy: coming up with guest lists, imagining the menus, finding the right lights for the backyard. And in doing so, I’ve also gotten to know myself a bit better.
It’s really hard to have insight into yourself right now, because the stress of pandemic life leaves us so little breathing room for reflection. But if you think about what you’re excited to do, that’s a way to start positively formulating what comes next in the face of so many unknowns. What does the phase of life after this weird year look like for you? What matters most to you? How will you make that happen?
Here’s a little template for finding something to savor: