How is COVID-19 transforming me
Fear, anxiety, uncertainty, concern or hope, care, belief, faith, and co-operation how I am handling the Corona challenge?
I would certainly say that I was scared, anxious, and worried when I was supposed to travel this month for work. I was uncertain about what would happen if I traveled: is it a threat to me, my family, or others around me?
What if I got a fever and would be quarantined for two weeks: how would my family handle things, what would happen to my work, how would I be spending my time in quarantine….
I was overwhelmed with lots of questions, and they still remain.
I am a firm believer that every crisis brings with itself a lot of opportunities. We always need to be grateful for what we have.
I started to see people buying groceries in preparation for the uncertain time ahead. I understand the anxiety that comes from a feeling of uncertainty but buying a cart full of milk or more than 2–3 weeks of supply for toilet tissue rolls was something I failed to understand.
My fear was now transforming into concern for people and economy.
I am fortunate enough to have a roof on my head, food on the table, and work from home, but then there are people in stores, hospitals taking care of OUR needs ensuring we have what we need to lead a healthy life.
Some people work in restaurants, malls, drive trucks. These are people who have been silently serving us for years but are the ones currently who are at the most risk. Their health and wealth are compromised.
Schools and colleges are closed. What happens to kids of people who still need to go out to work for ensuring we have supplies or when we get sick, they take care of us. Many children in public school systems rely on free and reduced lunch programs. Such government-funded facilities help children from not going hungry in their daily lives. However, bad their home lives get they have resources that schools provide them. Kids will no longer have a guarantee to have at least one meal a day as schools remain closed for some time now.
So many questions, but I don’t have any satisfactory answers yet
In a crisis like this I believe that we need to find and fix the root cause of the crisis as well as take care of our families and communities
I had to stay calm to think clearly and devise a concrete plan to take the right actions. This cannot be done when we panic.
Even in this time of crisis, the choice is still ours- What do we choose, to stay calm or to panic
Governments, NGOs, WHO, United Nations, etc. will do what they can do for all us, but as rational human beings, what can I and my family do to respond to this pandemic?
The first thing we agreed was that these are testing times, and we had to come out stronger, much stronger than the world-infamous Coronavirus.
There was too much information as well as misinformation on COVID-19, we had to filter down our information sources to only legitimate sources. As a family, we started to listen, understand, and implement what the CDC or Governments across the world are telling all of us to do.
As the flight attendant says, put your mask first and then help others. We applied the same principle in this situation too.
Powered by the right information, we had to ensure that we have what we needed to survive this crisis and then help people around us with whatever small or big things that we can do.
Things we did to manage our family
- We arranged two weeks of supplies in case of an emergency.
- Every day had calls, video chats with co-workers, friends, and family members not staying with us. As human beings, we need to communicate our feelings with others else it builds more anxiety and we start having a negative self-talk
- I particularly forced myself to have a positive and hopeful self talk
- I started going for walks with my hubby maintaining social distance. Physical activity and fresh spring air helped me with happiness hormones in my body
- Re-accessed my personal and professional goals. This helped get more focused and reduced anxiety and worry
- We started spending quality time with family and friends digitally.
- Spend time doing self-reflection. This helped me understand my emotions better and be in the driver seat and not let my emotions drive me.
To keep myself sane, I thought of activities, courses, or hobbies that I always wanted to do but have not found enough time. These are the things that I started to work on having some extra time to myself.
There are 450 Ivy League courses available for free.
These courses in the following subjects: Computer Science, Data Science, Programming, Humanities, Business, Art & Design, Science, Social Sciences, Health & Medicine, Engineering, Education & Teaching, Mathematics, and Personal Development.
I am now more calm, positive, and happy and all geared up to help others around me.
Figured out ways to help others
If someone around us was sick, then we checked with them if they were in need of anything n terms of supplies or food and delivered stuff at their doorstep.
We also wanted to help kids who now have a difficult time getting food as the schools are closed. We all can donate to keep kids that no longer have access to lunch at school by donating to various charitable organizations.
This is how I am handling myself with support and love from my family.
It has been two years since I lost my dad, and what I have learned is to build beautiful memories by spending time with loved ones, by sharing a good laugh, some good -bad experiences of life, and learning from each other
In these challenging times, the best thing I figured out was to staying connected digitally and spreading the love with all near and dear ones, building long-lasting beautiful memories
Make love and compassion a stronger emotion than fear and this too shall pass
