How's your Life going during lockdown?
Answers
Its the same. But a bit boring
Routine, structure, time-management: all good for human effectiveness and efficiency. Great. But not so easy to sustain in lockdown.
How can we run our lives on the same tracks we used BC (before Covid-19)? We can’t. We have to derail ourselves onto a new set.
Most of us aren’t working, some of us are living on top of each other in one household, all of us are in survival mode. This is surely as unprecedented as the virus itself. Socially, we usually have a mix of immediate family, extended family, friends, work colleagues and acquaintances; and daily people-contact out in our communities. This is the normal melting pot of human interaction in which we do very well.
Positive Psychology points out that belonging in groups, our tribal instinct, is what makes humans happy, thrive and flourish.
So what happens when this network of societal organisation is pulled out from under us like a tablecloth being ripped out from beneath a full dinner service? Cracked plates ensue….
Yes, we have virtual contact. Buckets of it. But contented and happy lives thrive on balance and we’re now totally out of whack. Life has become a hall of distorted mirrors which makes it difficult to find our fulcrum to ensure equilibrium. We have globally, and collectively, lost our bearings.
We are not free to come and go as we please, however, the reality is we are in lockdown; we have to stay put. Despite what some are saying about the infringement on our basic human rights, we have to do what we are told. Our lives literally depend on it.
How to cope though?
By embracing, not resisting, this ‘new normal’, for the time being.
We have no other choice if we want to survive this pandemic.
The key words here are ‘time being’.
Nothing lasts forever, according to Buddhist philosophy, and now, more than ever, we need to grasp this as our life-line, not as a fatalistic, somewhat depressing, concept.
If nothing lasts forever then, ergo, ‘this too shall pass’.
This pandemic WILL play itself out.
We WILL gain immunity and have access to antivirals and a vaccine.
We have to hold onto the fact that ‘nothing is as sure as time’; it ticks on, and we WILL have our normal existence and freedoms returned to us.
We have to hold onto, ironically, the impermanent nature of things.
This is the bright side, this is good news!