“Ah we will be fine; I am not worried I have no underlying problems and the way I see it if you are fit and healthy it can’t harm you. I might fall sick but hey I will recover after all I am healthy. My kid? Of course he will be fine too. Sure he cannot wear a mask and loves to jump off here and there but we are always with him and nothing will happen to him either. We are believers. We know that our creator won’t let harm befall us.” This is what a lot of parents with small children who are taking their children to nursery, parks, nature walks and to meet other kids in their support bubble say.
The other parents with children attending school might say, “oh I don’t want my kids to miss out on their education, they need to be out there and studying. Apart from that then need to intermingle with their peers develop social skills and keep up with their education, besides there’s nothing for them to do at home. And I can’t keep leaving the household chores to attend to home schooling them. I mean what about my online business and all the cooking cleaning I have to do? Legs not forget that they spend their whole day on tiktok Instagram and video chatting with their friends. They can’t watch the box the whole day either. My kids are going to turn into slobs!”
And then we have another set of patent, the single mama who says, “oh gosh I don’t dare to go outside with my little bubba; he is too small to wear a mask and won’t sit still in a stroller. People coughing on the streets leaving their trace all over the place hell no! To be honest I just don’t have the time and space in our day to think of getting us out to the park or what have you, we have a lush garden beautiful scenic views, doggies and more, bubba can stay in the home enjoy the outdoors in the gardens back and front and stay safe. After all we only have each other to look out for. The worry is not about whether we will make it but who will do all the nurturing and daily chores for bubba if I get sick. What happens to my little bubba if I get sick?”
Apart from the views above which are all valid in their own way, we have people who might find that then simply have no choice at all to make. These are the shielder who might have underlying health conditions. Then others who might not be vulnerable as such but live with those that are.
The recent pandemic has brought to the fore where we all stand in our inner world and how it relates to the outer world of people and places. Most of us are accustomed to filling our days with a lot of things to do. Even doing yoga or doing meditation or meeting other yogis in a class. Walks. Group walks. Cafe meet ups.
Let us go back to the original self that becomes individuated and then builds on itself layers and layers or experience. Its gong to have to wade though all of these layers to get to its core right? Unless of course all of the experiences have been core driven and core incorporated. And the core then is always at the fore front.
With the pandemic it has almost stopped us all in our tracks and asked that we take a stock check of our lives where we are where we want to be and how we want to express ourselves in ways that are most authentic and reflective of our core. A lot of us have lost touch with our very inner self and have sought to validate our self through the outwardly material world.
The world is there to be experienced no doubt but at what cost? It doesn’t ask you to give up being who are. You have lost your way hence seek in the world the you that you have lost not knowing you are also seeking that. You roam around aimlessly filling your day with one thing after another without any time for that stillness of being because you don’t even know what that is. How you gauge how well your day went is with how much you achieved which will be how much you did, placed you visited people you met etc.
What happens then when your liberties are taken hostage by a virus that can be deadly for some and has no pattern or criteria for infecting. It just does at random. Do you still continue to indulge the senses outside?
Initially the buzz of something new happening might make you want to stay indoors clean more and then when it gets boring, loses its novelty you decide nah I can’t do this I want to go out. I am invincible. And then you get sick, or you don’t but you see others around you getting sick. You still go out.
Where does the feeling of “we will be fine” come from in a pandemic as deadly as this? And are we really fine. What motivates us to break the rules, still socialise against the legal limits in places that are in lockdown? Some people are vulnerable and still socialise. And those that have observed all the rules, and stayed indoors even when perhaps they really didn’t have to in some cases, what drives them?
Are we all driven by fear of being controlled? Or the love of the outdoors? Or that we can’t bear the loneliness?
Whatever “that” that is pushing us to make decisions that we have during the pandemic might hold the key to where you are in your journey.
Some of us have embraced these times and used them for self reflection and mapped out a course that better reflects our true self for when we return to life post Covid. For others, we have steadfastly held on to our lives before Covid and will have created a buffer inside of us behind which we take comfort in that we are invincible. Some of us may simply not be ready to explore an inner world.
The root of all these behaviours whether rational or not is one: Our Brain. We are wired to remain connected. Our growth depends on this connection. Without that feeling of connectivity we cannot thrive, we cannot grow. We get depressed lonely and all sorts of mental illnesses eat at us. But the good news is that when we hit that patch of loneliness you now have a chance to explore these feelings get to know your root better and draw out a better version of yourself. You become connected to you.
And when you become connected to you, you can feel that connection with all the people places and more that you cannot physically meet because connectedness doesn’t only come from being together physically. We think of each other. We pray for each other. We send each other gifts. We sing for each other. We dream of each other.
The pandemic has been the time to harvest your connection to you and see that it all. That connectivity has always been there and it’s stronger now that the pandemic is almost through recreating and resetting the worlds of you me and us.
Whatever your decision, know that we are always together and will survive these times into an era of thriving from the self.