It is the 5th day of the pan-India lock down. Entire
nation is fighting COVID-19 by staying at home. Never has our, and probably
even our previous generation witnessed a situation of such magnitude.
Immunization against this virus mandates social distancing. We
are locked in our homes, forcefully, as voluntary participation will not serve
the bigger good here. What this means for most of us, is much beyond just the
flexibility to work from and at home. Few things I realized during this time:
World doesn’t cease
to exist
Yuval Noah Harrari explains in his book “Sapiens” how we
humans (Homo sapiens) have built imaginary systems and adapted to imaginary
practices that aren’t ingrained in our natural DNA. Fallacies that make us
sprint through our lives each day do not allow us to slow down, lest the world
around us would stop functioning.
The last 2 weeks (of lock down in Maharashtra) have shown that
neither the world, nor we, stop functioning. We still survive, have access to
nutrition, entertainment, we still can eat, sleep and make merry. Systems, government
and households are still functioning, albeit with a lower staff and slower pace,
but that hasn’t been catastrophic so far.
In fact, the air we breathe is cleaner than before, we save
fuel by not driving to offices and chirping of birds has replaced the traffic noise.
The over dependence on domestic and external help do not enslave us or control our
routine anymore; rather we have imbibed few traits of self-dependence. This
lock down will certainly re-draw the limits we have been encircling ourselves
with.
There are Opportunities
in Adversities
President John F Kennedy famously reinterpreted the dual
characters that form the Chinese word for “Crisis”; One, he mentioned referred
to danger, while other represented opportunity.
The facilities and work options extended these days by
corporate establishments are certainly, what any salaried employee would often wish for, but
rarely get in his / her working life. The futile travel time, otherwise spent braving
heavy traffic, is now at our disposal. Snooze the alarm for some extra sleep at
dawn, or speak your heart out with your loved one over a coffee at dusk; play
at length with your kid, or watch your favourite movie, just find a fruitful
way to spend this extra time.
On the financial side, the Indian stock markets gripped by
fear have experienced a fall of about 35% in last 3 months. Experts claim this to
be one of such “once in a decade” opportunities when good stocks for long-term
investments are on a bonanza sale. “Be greedy when others are fearful” is what
Warren Buffet advocates. Fortune smiles on the opportunists, are you not being
one?
The need to slow down
Almost every one of us has helplessly let professional
priorities take over personal commitments throughout our working lives. Attempts
to manage too many things simultaneously (term sugar-coated as “multi-tasking”)
has been tiring. Chasing professional deadlines have taken most of us away from
life enhancing experiences. Slowing down never seemed more essential.
The noise that surrounds us and
clogs our mind may take multiple forms. From the bike honking on a busy road, the
viral messages on social media, resulting negative emotions, toxic news on
television and malicious plots in daily soaps, our mind is unconsciously busy
absorbing lot of noise throughout the day.
We need to plug the leaks that drain our energy and connect
back to life. Human body can repair itself when offered the required rest. A decluttered
mind engaged in an art can do what exercise does to body. Be it painting,
music, writing or cooking, practicing art mindfully in any form releases the hormones
that make us happy. Try it, now that you have the time.
Being mindful is
essential
There is no such thing as “multi-tasking”. Human mind
performs just one task at a time. What we call “multi-tasking” is simply an act
of switching between multiple tasks too frequently. This leads to a mindless race
towards completion of tasks. None of the tasks receives the desired attention,
while all this taxes our mind beyond limits.
Mindfulness is the complete, undivided, whole-hearted and non-judgmental
attention that we give towards a person or activity. It is how actively you
listen to your spouse, without looking at your mobile, or how you play with
your kid without any screen disturbance. It could also mean allowing yourself
the time and patience to complete reading a book or a painting without letting
any other thoughts come into your mind.
Mindfulness, when practiced in art and in relationships,
carries the potential to transform lives for good. Worth paying attention to
and getting habitual to it, during this lock down.
Gadget distancing is
necessary too
We are in an information age. We have easy access to
infinite information; however, sadly this information only fills the mind and
seldom gets distilled into useful wisdom.
Over indulgence in social media has made us overly dependent
on external sources for happiness. We are constantly in search of entertainment,
which urges us to spend more time on it. We are slipping away from more durable
sources of relatively permanent states of happiness by falling prey to temporary
joys. This only stresses us out, denting our health and relationships too in
extreme cases.
By constantly filling our mind with unnecessary information (e.g.
statistics on COVID-19), we refrain it from wandering freely. A wandering mind,
may not necessarily be idle, rather it may prove to be a wellspring of ideas.
Most inventors and artists have been dreamers who would never ring-fence their
imagination within curtailed limits.
Research too shows that happiness measures in inverse
proportion to screen time. I agree from my own experience, do you?
Let this
lock down allow you more “Me” and “We” time, than screen time. 21 days of practice
can make it a habit, do try it.
The COVID-19 crisis has surfaced the uncertainties in life, yet again. Man proposes, God disposes. A way to fight such uncertainties is to lower expectations and increase flexibility. It is also essential to keep looking for silver lining that, at times lies hidden, in every dark cloud.
25 years down the line we will excitedly describe this time to our coming generations (just like our parents and grandparents describe the times of wars and emergency), so cherish these moments completely. Good luck!
