3 Life Skills Coronavirus Taught Me
What an experience!! Although I wouldn’t have chosen it at will, yet I appreciate the learning that came with it.
Here are the 3 Life Skills Coronavirus taught me:
1. Being Mindful
Being a mom for four lovely kids, running a start up company, and having an active social life, usually I am doing more than one thing at a time. Eating and answering emails, driving the car and listening to an audio book, listening and taking notes, attending a meeting and thinking about a project that I have in mind, even in the spa I'm reading a book or listening to a recording.
Coronavirus forced me to slow down, and life felt different, there's a bliss in slowing down, being present in the moment. That alone kept my spirit high although my body wasn’t well.
Slowing down is a gift that’s usually misunderstood for inaction or wasting time. Remember that sometimes slow is fast. When you give yourself permission to slow down, you allow yourself to recharge your battery and accumulate energy that’s needed for going fast. Developing your agility to go from slow to fast to slow again everyday is at the heart of blissful living. Thanks coronavirus for the reminder!
2. Acceptance
What comes to mind here is the first of Covey’s “7 Habits for Highly Effective People” : Being Proactive.
On page 71 in his book, Covey said “Because we are, by nature, proactive, if our lives are a function of conditioning and conditions, it is because we have, by conscious decision or by default, chosen to empower those things to control us” and by accepting the coronavirus as an inevitable condition in that moment, it lost its power over me. Having a high spirit helped me stay emotionally at peace, and mentally manage my expectations of this period of time. I believe this helped accelerate the recovery of my physical body.
3. Surrender
This is not about being passive or apathetic. On the contrary, this is about dropping resistance to what’s out of one’s control. It comes after accepting what is, then actively yielding to it by riding the wave of the moment without trying to change it because it’s not possible. I still did my part here of isolating myself, taking lots of fluids and vitamin C with zinc, practicing conscious breathing, using some essential oils, listening to sound frequencies that strengthen the immune system, taking my medicines, and resting. That was all I could do in the moment to help myself.
The greatest learning of this experience is that THINKING ABOUT THE FUTURE is a great thing to do when you’re emotionally feeling good, because your creativity is then unleashed, your mind is open to all possibilities, and you feel powerful and capable. But not a so good idea when you're feeling low.
Have you ever thought of your future when you’re in despair? What came up? Exactly! And it’s not necessarily true. But you will make it true eventually if you keep your attention on it.
So, remember that the universe goes in a cyclical order, this relates to our emotional state going through highs and lows. When you're not feeling that well, ride the wave of the moment, stay present allowing the experience to pass, avoid going into the future then. It will pass!
Dream on a high; and on a low, ride the wave of the moment.
