Find everything from within!
The days passed and we are over six months into the COVID era. We needed to find answers and surprisingly we managed to find everything from within! Yes, everything had changed. We as humans, to survive, we rapidly adapted. We are getting used to the new norms and a young generation of kids are learning it as the only reality they know.
COVID is like a coin with a “Creation side” and a “Devastation one”. During COVID times, some believe they are lucky as the coin felt face up on the opportunity/side for them. Others feel unlucky as it felt facing down for them. I don’t believe in luck. I believe in humans taking responsibility of their destiny as we all have the power to define our future by the actions we take in our journeys.
Here some positive things COVID brought
- Gave permission to do things people were hesitant to try.
- Put a magnifying glass on the extremes that existed in our society.
- Pushed every individual to redefined terms and priorities.
- Catalyzed technological advances.
- Time to find everything from within!
1- Permission
How many young moms wanted to homeschool their kids and didn’t dare to go against the grain? “What would happen to the kids?” They were wondering, “Are they going to be socially inadequate?” Now, COVID sent all the kids home and moms are seeing the benefits. Of course, this is not a solution that fits every household or every kid!
The same happened with the home office concept! Companies were hesitant to move and try remote work. The new reality with COVID forced them to experiment with what they were postponing for years. Suddenly lots of data is coming in that will help companies to plan their future moves and views on this topic.
2- The magnifying glass effect
Problems don’t arise overnight. Problems and behaviours live within us in us latency. Throughout our lives, we learned tools to adapt and control ourselves to be socially accepted. Stress can trigger human emotions exposing unwanted behaviours. As COVID showed up suddenly, we didn’t have time to prepare or accept the changes imposed in our daily lives.
Overnight our survival switch was “on”, and all the control we believed to have, was out of our hands.
Losses of jobs and the fact many stayed more time at home living extended hours interacting with the family, change the dynamics. The fusses got snappier than ever and lots of domestic violence is happening. Consumption of alcohol rose considerably which lead to worst outcomes. The personality problems were there! Now, the lack of communication became obvious, and the new scenario wasn’t favouring those involved in this kind of toxic relationship.
Although, on the flip side of the coin, those who had a good relationship embraced the opportunity to spend more time together, to share things that busy routines were in the way without even noticing. Lots of people became more empathic, more tolerant and less egoistic.
We had time to stop and smell the roses!
3- Redefining terms and priorities
COVID made us stop our life abruptly forcing us to stay at home and preventing us to do anything we were used to doing outside of our houses. The society had time (which we were always craving for) to realize after a few weeks into lockdown, that we were not missing so badly the restaurants or the bar experience, the rushing to meeting friends and having the feeling of running without a destination.
Finally, we started to enjoy our homes, to declutter our lives and fell a sense of stillness.
We accepted the fact we won’t be travelling abroad for a while and maybe it is a good idea of travelling locally to support our country, provinces, cities and neighbourhoods. A sense of community was reborn. My hubby and I buy from the grocery corner store, smaller stores became more desirable and safer than the massive supermarkets.
You and I want the small business owners in our hoods to survive therefore we make a conscious effort to buy from them.
Our priorities shuffle. No better, no worst. Just different. The accent is now put into humanity, into looking around and become part of something bigger. It’s a time to find everything from within!
4- Catalyzed technology advances
Did I need to go to the doctor’s office and wait for an hour in a room full of sick people sometimes for hours? How come the teleconference wasn’t available before COVID? Why people didn’t trust online shopping for produce and now they are doing it and enjoying it? Kids couldn’t attend remote classes or us remote meetings especially in days when heavy snow made so dangerous the driving?
Fear and perfection it’s all that comes to mind. I call this “The polishing effect”. When someone is afraid of failure, rejection or not being good enough, it feels safer to keep polishing the gem believing one day it will become irresistible and impossible to be rejected. But that rarely happens in real life! Especially nowadays that technology moves at a speed very hard to catch for the average person!
The old and wise quote “Better done than perfect” os proving itself during COVID.
I am a firm believer in disruption as a catalyzer for progress.
COVID disrupted our world in ways we couldn’t imagine or anticipate. As the evolution shows not the stronger are the ones who survive, are the more flexible and adaptable individuals, businesses and societies. The power of our communities is greater than we believed in the past and to our surprise, we could find everything we need within.
This pandemic brought us time to find everything from within! By that, I mean within ourselves, our homes, our families and most importantly our communities and countries. If we always had it all from within then the question reminds… What, why and who told us we needed to be looking outside? Different people, societies and history will remember COVID in different ways. It will all depend on the boat each one was in during the storm.
I naively hope COVID would continue pushing society to reflect on the experience and learn from the rights and wrongs during these uncertain times.
Please leave your thoughts and experiences during COVID! I would love to learn how are you navigating this journey.
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