The COVID-19 lockdown is making everyone go qray-qray! It’s changed the way we feel when we wake up in the morning, the way we plan our day; it has messed up our sleep cycles, as well as pretty much everything about our daily routines. The time that we’d use to get ready for office is now utilized in sweeping-swabbing the house, meals are had alone or shared with the same set of people at home every day. And short coffee/cigarette/gossip breaks in the middle of work just don’t feel as satisfying or fruitful when taken at home.
But one of the major changes the COVID-19 crisis has brought about is in the way we take STRESS. Earlier we would stress about reaching to work on time, now we stress about what our next meal will be. Earlier we would stress about completing our weekly targets, now we stress about how we would spend our weekends considering we can’t go out. Earlier we would stress about the outfit we would pick for a friend’s birthday party, now we stress about sound and video quality as we Skype with that friend in our pyjamas. A drastic drop in sensex and share market numbers would lead the way we felt about our day earlier, but now we have more ground-level concerns to address such as shortage of groceries or daily supplies at home.
So how do we deal with so much change? Elongated periods of staying indoors and not having social contact is bound to take a toll on our mental health. I feel like it really is all about the perspective with which we look at it. This pandemic is bringing us back to reality, a space of patience, gratitude and calm. A reality which us human beings would never be able to explain to each other. The reality that life is all about the simple things; and about of valuing and appreciating them. Time spent at home with family, home-cooked meals, taking a plain paper and drawing like a toddler, trying out new recipes, yoga, re-connecting with old friends & family you’ve lost touch with. All the things humankind indulged in before the whirlwind of technology took over.
The virus is making us all humble, helpful and sensitive. We’re realizing that we’re all a part of one big community. Suddenly, we are not thinking about the Zara jacket we were eyeing, but of the daily wage workers and where they’d get their next meal from. We are not obsessing over throwing grand house parties, but feeling grateful that we have loved ones in our lives who we get love and support from during these testing times. These things are slowing us down, putting a pause to the rat race; the passion, ambition, competition, the constant need to run, the constant need to achieve, and the desire to never be satisfied with what we have. But somewhere, we all know that in these tough times it is important to be appreciative of the smaller things and spread positivity rather than being stuck in competition, politics and conflict. After all this is a battle, a HUGE battle. And we’re all soldiers fighting to win it. And the more we come together to solve it, the stronger we get.
So is this the real reason this virus came into the world? To teach us the balance? To shake us up, wake us up, and make us look beyond our regular perspectives? To give us another chance; to be less selfish and more generous; to be less egoistic and more empathetic; to avoid jealousy and give credibility to genuine hard-work; to forgive, forget and be more kind? To go back to our roots, reflect about our past mistakes and START FRESH?
Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.