APRIL 5, 2020
“I think it’s very healthy to spend time alone. You need to know how to be alone and not be defined by another person.”
-Oscar Wilde
The world is going through a lot right now and it is very important for all of us to take responsible actions towards the well-being of all. Many people throughout the world are now working from home and many students are studying from home as well. With literally no exposure to the outside world, it can sometimes be quite difficult to adjust being locked in the four walls everyday. But like every coin, this also has two sides – the good and the bad…
Well, everybody knows the bad right now. Industries have shut down, the COVID-19 pandemic is spreading at a frightening rate, the economy is not doing good, overseas travel is almost non-existent now, people are forced to be locked down into their houses, we are afraid of even meeting other people or coming in contact with them, we are gripped by the fear of not having essential goods and services which is making us panic buy and in turn put a lot of strain on the supply of essential goods…
We all are well aware of all this, but are we aware of the good that is happening right now? There is a lot of good that is happening. The sky is becoming clear and visibility is increasing, pollution levels have dropped to zero in many metropolitan cities as a result of rare vehicle movement and shutting down of factories, it is common to see and hear the birds happily flying and chirping all day now, from some places the mountains are clearly visible from as far as 200 kilometres, we as humans are realising how important our health is, and, one of the best things that is happening is that we are getting the true opportunity to recover, rediscover and rejuvenate ourselves…
Now that you are not going anywhere, you are getting the opportunity to read the book that has been on the shelf from a long time and you always put it away by saying to yourself, “I don’t have time right now, I am busy.” You are getting the opportunity to do the online course that you wanted to do from a long time but weren’t getting the time. You are getting the opportunity to pursue your interests and satiate your curiosity regarding different things…
When you try to talk to yourself and understand your true interests and manage your time well in the day by working as well as doing things that you are interested in, you will still be left with time to beguile. You can do a lot of things in this time that will lead to personal and spiritual growth, and guess what? You can even work on your family life during this time. Let’s discuss the ways to make quarantine self-productive and enriching for you-
- Develop a new habit. Have you wanted to start practising yoga or start reading books day by day? Or maybe you wanted to know more about parallel universes, multi-planetary inhabitation or extra-terrestrial life and start explaining your perspective and knowledge through a blog. You also may have wanted to learn computer programming and make your own video games by learning through online courses. Maybe you still haven’t started the YouTube channel you wanted to. Whatever it is that you want to do, THIS IS THE TIME!!! Even if you work in your office hours everyday, you will still have time to spare and you can utilise it by building a new habit in the field that you are truly interested in. Now, for building that habit, you need to practice either learning or reading or making or doing something everyday. Take the actions that are in line with the habit that you are trying to build or that new thing you are trying to learn. This way you will not be bored thinking about ways to dissipate your time and you will build a productive habit.
- Learn to take responsibility. This is very important because when you know how to take responsibility for your actions and doings, you will very well be aware of the result of your action and this will lead you to take the actions that lead to your own well-being. This is particularly important for students and teenagers like me because we as children usually take the benefit of our parents telling us not to worry about doing this or doing that as they will do it for us. We take this chance and we don’t learn the importance of taking responsibility in the years when we are growing. It is very important for children to learn to take responsibility for themselves when young because a person’s ability to learn, comprehend and adapt new things is very sharp in the early years of life. This is why it is difficult for many adults to take responsible actions and decisions in their life because they have not learned how to adapt according to situations and take responsibility accordingly. But, no matter how old you are, you can still learn to be responsible by taking baby steps towards it. Take the responsibility of your workspace. Get the books, laptop, notebooks, pens, pencils, and many other things on your table organised. Put your markers and staplers in a small basket instead of just letting them be somewhere on the table randomly. This will help you learn how to take the responsibility of your own surroundings or workspace and this will also increase your efficiency while working and studying. This is because our surroundings have a great impact on our state of mind and this affects how energised we are while doing something and how proactive we are while doing things. If you just go to your table and set things aside for fitting your laptop in the space and then you start work, you will feel disorganised in your work and you will be confused about what to do or how to do it. You will be lethargic and you will have a distracted and unproductive state of mind. All because of your cluttered surroundings. If you organise everything and you sit for your work with energy, the scenario will be completely opposite.
- Increase communication within your family. In quarantine, you have yet another great opportunity to bring prosperity and happiness to your life. Sometimes we are so engrossed with our professional life that we take our personal and family life for granted. Lack of communication will affect every member of your family. Children in the family will feel as if they are not getting enough love and care and that may make them feel as if they are not important for their parents and that might lead to formation of inferiority complex because of which they may hesitate talking with even their own parents. On the other hand the parents who are working may feel that they have a lot of work pressure and they may become frustrated for not being able to give time to their personal life. This frustration may come out in the form of anger… But now the scenario is different, coronavirus has forced everybody to stay in their houses and work from home. Now you have the chance to increase communication within your family by asking each other for opinions in the affairs of the house and playing board games and spending some time together and getting closer to each other. This will greatly increase the sense of connection within your family and result in laughter, smiles and happiness!!! Everybody has some or the other cause ready for not being able to give priority to their loved ones, but you have the chance to make quarantine your cause for the ever-lasting joyful bonding of your family!!!
- Convert the “Free Time” to the “Me Time!” You need to give importance to your work, your family and yourself. At times it seems tedious to manage all of them well and we end up giving our attention to one part or the other based on the situation and its urgency. Now that the nature is using this time to rejuvenate as there is very rare human intervention in the world’s natural activities, we can also use it to rejuvenate ourselves as there is very little physical human interaction and meeting. We are not meeting a lot of people and we are not going anywhere now and this has given us a lot of time to spare. We can develop a new habit, work efficiently and rediscover ourselves in this quarantine. Talk to yourself the way you talk to your closest friend. Ask yourself, “Hey buddy, how are you? I know that it has been a very long time since we got to talk and I don’t want to miss this opportunity! I want to know more about you! Come on, let’s talk!” This is what you can say to yourself and this will truly help you to unleash the truth about your potential and your existence… I have mentioned the importance of giving time to ourselves in one of my previous blogs in detail. You can go check that out as well. (https://secretsofthemind.home.blog/2019/09/13/do-we-really-need-to-give-ourselves-time/)
Also, during this “Me Time” you need to practice how to radiate positivity and how to experience positivity in these tough times. You can start this by concentrating on your breath. Your breath is one of the most vital yet unnoticed part of your existence. If you are not able to breathe you are not able to live. By concentrating and observing how we breathe naturally, we are giving our breath the importance it deserves and by expressing gratitude towards it we are giving out good, positive energy which is in turn giving you positivity. This is because the universe responds to what information you give it. It is like Google Maps – you tell Maps you want to go to New York, and it will give you the directions for it. If you want to go to London, it will give you directions for it. This is the same with the universe. You tell it that you want positivity by giving it positivity. The universe is slightly different from Google Maps. The app only gives you directions, but the universe takes you to the place. So if you want to go to the place called “The Productive State of Positivity”, you tell this to the universe by expressing gratitude and positivity. Now that the universe knows where you want to go, It will take you there by the mean of transport best suitable for you. The destination may be same for everyone, but the path everyone takes is different. By expressing gratitude towards your breath by just bringing your awareness on it in the present moment, you can utilise this “Me Time” very well. You can also utilise this “Me Time” by reflecting on your past actions and understanding if they were in alignment of your goal and planning for the future actions… This “Me Time” will help you find calm and balance within yourself and you will also be able to deal with emotional breakdowns efficiently as well… - Don’t squander your time on social media, use it well. Entertainment and relaxation by using social media or by watching movies or web series isn’t bad, but being obsessed with unproductive entertainment and doing it all time will be a total waste of time.It is good to watch movies and scroll through your social media profile, but just watching movies back to back or just lying on the sofa scrolling on your phone for hours without any motive can be quite a waste of your precious time. Keep out time for entertainment and fun online, but without being obsessed with it.
This is how I feel quarantine can be made productive and used for personal growth and well-being. If you found this helpful please share it ahead with many people in this tough time so that they can also make the best use of it and not let the negativity affect them…
Thanks a lot for reading!