Blog

As we begin the 3rd week of ‘shelter in place’ (maybe more or less for some), We are all in the process of adjusting our lives to the situation. May that be a balance of working from home and spending time with your family, or figuring out how not to get “cabin fever”, or for some… dealing with the consequences of loss in employment, a loved one contracting the disease or even worse, losing someone to the disease.

Beyond the virus itself, a driving force behind all the anxiety is…. Uncertainty. Will I be able to support myself and my family? Will my close ones be safe? When will this pass? ……… Is this life the new normal ?!!

Humans strive for stability and control, which equates to routine, habits and partially planning for what could lie ahead. Right now, we strive to adjust our routine and habits, while we stand puzzled about what lies ahead.

I grew up in Odisha, a very Biodiverse state on the east coast of India where development has somewhat been slow. Odisha was consistently subjected to nature’s brunt — Floods, Hurricanes, outbreaks unfortunately were a part of life. At large, the same patterns were seen across India through the 90s as well. Combine that with an exploding population, lack of awareness and poor infrastructure, mortality was ever present. That adversity taught us a few things… stay close to your loved ones, use less, learn from every event … and always believe in one thing — This.too.shall.pass!And as we navigate this global crisis of unprecedented scale, my mind gravitates to find the silver lining…… We all live lives that are constantly overstimulated. Jobs that never slow down, devices that take turns buzzing throughout the day and more human interactions than what we can effectively manage or maintain. When the information economy moves at a pace faster than the planet itself, the best we can all do is play catchup. This is a time where the world has slowed down….almost to a trickle.

And with all the mayhem around us as states scramble to formulate response plans, the best way we can contribute as a collective is by slowing down.

The active construct of life can be defined by a set of choices — Choices we make as individuals, choices we make as a family and choices we make as communities. As a community, we need to make the collective choice to slow down, allow for this to take its course and do as much as we can to minimize the impact. As a family, we need to make the choice to stay together, support each other and believe that this will pass. As an individual, we need to choose self-care — The social media narrative on this one is largely about “doing” things, but it doesn’t have to be that. If self-care for you means taking the time to think and not ‘do’, even better. It is also very important to stay informed, but don’t overload on the media narrative :).

Personally, I will try to take the time to do things that I normally complain I don’t have enough time to do. For e.g. — finish that piece of music I started 2 years ago. If everything was normal, I would ‘choose’ to go out with my friends over staying home and working on music… well, nature just made that choice easy for me :).

The other crucial thing that gives me hope and comfort is something that is immutable and has always stared down adversity. When you strip away the possessions, the wealth, the metrics, the hierarchies, what remains is the human spirit. The human spirit albeit vulnerable right now, still shines bright. I see people looking out for each other, extending any help they can… every conference call begins with a human conversation checking in on each other. On some calls, business takes a back seat and people share stories with each other.

Take that extra minute, ask how your colleague or client or neighbor or the delivery person is doing. We are fortunate to have an ecosystem of tools that allow us to be connected, lets intelligently use it to nurture each others spirits.

Coming out of this, there are no doubts in my mind that there will be long lasting effects, but we need to keep our eyes on the light to make it through this. And I sure hope, we emerge stronger as individuals, as a collective and learn to make better choices.

“For long you live and high you fly, And smiles you’ll give and tears you’ll cry,

And all you touch and all you see, Is all your life will ever be” — Pink Floyd