Choosing Acceptance to deal with a Pandemic that seems like it’s Never Ending.
Its our Choices that show what we truly are….J.K.Rowling
Over a year has passed since the COVID-19 pandemic took over the world.
Sparing no place and no person, it forced us to make major modifications to how we carry out our day to day living. Things we took for granted like travelling , socialising , eating out, were now carried out after careful calibration of so many factors.
But we humans are adaptive; and so we stayed indoors, collectively responded to the challenge and followed directives on how best to keep the virus at bay.
High levels of altruism and community spirit was seen all over the planet.
People all over made an effort to see, hear and care for each other.
I for one spent a lot of time ‘Inside’ — both, ‘inside’ my head and ‘inside’ my home. The lockdown having brought to an end many activities, left me with ample time for introspection, rumination, anxiety, cooking, watching Netflix ….this list can go on and on.
I tried not to catastrophize, kept busy with hobbies, limited my intake of news, and waited patiently for this dark cloud to pass by.
A gradual decline of infectious cases and news of the vaccine rollout brought global hope.
Relaxation of lockdown measures saw people out on the streets . Traffic jams and the sight of crowds taking over the public places throwing social distancing norms to the wind were worrisome; especially with experts telling us that the virus is still around.
It was like a time bomb …waiting to explode.
Soon cases began to spike; The virus began to rear its ugly head again and the earlier chaos resurfaced culminating in Another Lockdown!
I usually try to make best of a bad situation — glean out the positives from all the negative news; But this restrictive environment, coupled with the added stress of the mutating virus getting the better of us, is taking its toll on my mental health.
It’s a feeling of melancholy. My cognitive flexibility and emotional balance are both in short supply. I’m tired of being cautious all the time, Added to this, is the disrupted quantity and quality of sleep. Not seeing an end to what’s happening, I have no motivation to do anything.
Talking to people I figured that many among us feel a lot of these symptoms.
Youngsters are also finding this time very stressful. With schools closed , isolation from friends, exams cancelled and Predictability — our stabilizing force, thrown out of the window, anxiety and depression have escalated.
As much as one supports the need for these restrictions, it’s the fatigue and a lack of control over the situation that make this lockdown a much difficult course to navigate. .
One thing that I have figured is that, for all the innumerable problems mankind can have, there are usually just a handful of ways to approach them. — Solve the problem, Change how you feel about them, Accept them or Fight them and suffer.
Unfortunately I don’t think the pandemic is something that can be solved in a hurry, it will take its time. About changing how I feel about it- no doubt its helpful to think of how this pandemic has forced us to reset our priorities, reconnect with nature, get off the treadmill and slowdown ….and so forth, but right now I am far to exhausted to think through this lens of forced positivity.
Since I cannot solve the issue nor get myself to think differently about it, I figured that the only way to cope is to move away the lens of anguish and resistance, and bring in an attitude of acceptance.
Acceptance is about acknowledging the reality — the facts and the demands of the present situation without judging or any wishful thinking.
‘It is what it is for now is what I tell myself. This in no ways implies that we are in agreement with the situation or that we have resigned to the situation instead we acknowledge it so that we can now expend our energies towards deciding how to cope with it.
One can learn the attitude of acceptance through the practise of mindfulness . Mindfulness help us notice our thoughts and emotions in a non-judgemental way — the intrusive unhelpful thoughts which lead to feelings of anger , sadness and helplessness; All valid feelings in the current scenario. Acceptance of these feelings and thoughts allow us to take a pause and reengage with them in wiser and more compassionate ways.
In this way ordinary pain does not mutate to extraordinary suffering.
Making Mindfulness a part of ones daily routine requires some amount of effort.
Each day as we practise acceptance we begin to respond with a sense of calm to the demands and the struggles that we face due to the challenges posed by this pandemic.
This pandemic isn’t over yet. No one can predict what shape it will take over the next month or years. It is human nature to assume that one can control or manipulate reality; but the fact is that, you cannot. Peace and happiness can be found when you make the choice to accept the reality of the situation at hand.
