COVID-19: A time to introspect

You heard it — 21 days of nationwide lock-down. When was the last time you experienced anything like this? Perhaps never, and that too for such a long time. COVID-19 is perhaps the biggest Black Swan event in our lives and the one which isn’t relenting anytime soon. What we are experiencing today was unthinkable about a week ago, and we have no idea what the next week would bring.

Looking at the horrific fate of some rich European countries and America, we have all the reasons to be worried (see the stats). I am not so much concerned about economic crisis or even recession, as much as about ‘depression’, not of economy but of the society — of you and me. We need to fight it out together. The fight is almost entirely internal to us. It calls for discipline, sincerity, and courage — mental strength perhaps over physical strength.

As days run into weeks and now months, many of us will start to lose hope. The chimes of WhatsApp would dwindle, and so would enthusiasm, and that’s when the internal fight begins.

There are just about two ways of going through this time — distraction and introspection.

Distraction is the first resort. Watching movies, catching up on sitcoms, re-reading and transmitting messages on social media, and generating work for oneself are some of the ways of distraction. Such an approach would soon run out of steam, and most of us understand the challenge that stands before us. 21 days of lock down isn’t trivial. It takes a tremendous amount of courage to weather it, knowing that things might soon slip into the worst.

What I am proposing here is an alternate approach of getting through this time — introspection. Our busy lives, both at work and home, do not relent us into taking a deep dive into ourselves. Getting to spend time doing nothing in particular. Sitting for long hours indoor. Spending time doing rather non-exciting stuff. These aren’t the things that we have been used to, let alone exciting. But now we have to, for foreseeable future.

Here is a set of questions I would like to ask for yourself, and don’t give up till you get to some satisfactory answers.

1. Do you see your work is a respite from your family?
2. Do you find it difficult to be self-directed and always look for somebody to tell you what exactly needs to be done?
3. Do you find it tiring to look after your children and spend time with them?
4. Is your life miserable without your friends around you?
5. Do you always feel the urge to keep yourself busy?
6. How do you plan to take care of your fitness?
7. Are your finances sufficient to take care of such episodes in future?
8. Are you feeling miserable being with your family, at home?
9. How different would you like your life to be once things resume normalcy?, and finally,
10. What if you don’t survive COVID-19, what would you regret the most?

I strongly believe that life offers you situations for a reason — for you to pause, reflect, and then proceed with a new vigor. This is one such occasion. Don’t waste it. “This too shall pass” — it’s for you to make the most of the situation. As you are locked down, it’s time to open up to yourself and take a deep dive inward to ask some difficult questions that your rather busy life doesn’t let you.