The arrival of COVID-19 has thrown us into a life of uncertainty, fear and all of us are experiencing some degree of disruption. In such a scenario, we need to practice hygiene and social distancing to protect ourselves and our community from the viral threat. However, our time in isolation doesn’t have to be gloomy or boring at all. We can use this time apart from our daily lifestyle to improve or enrich ourselves, practising new habits for personal growth.
Changing the Mindset
The human mind is wired to create and maintain regularity and discipline. However, whenever we are forced out of our routine and habits, we have opportunities for growth. The scenarios of unpredictability create psychological flexibility, which is an essential component of mental health. So, considering that we can utilize this time during social distancing and lockdown, let us look at a few habits that can lead us to personal growth.
Keep Yourself Fit
During the lockdown period, our daily exercising habits have been disrupted. However, I believe that we should not treat this time as a break from activities that keep us healthy and fit. Sure, you cannot go to the gym now, but I would suggest you to push yourself to do exercises at home. Who knows, maybe your search for home exercises will help you find some new and effective exercise habits.
You can also virtually connect with your friends, work colleagues, family members and bring them into the fold to do exercise sessions together. It will keep you and your loved ones motivated to stay fit.
Look Inward
Coronavirus lockdown could be the perfect time to get started with mindfulness practices. Indeed, adapting to a standstill life from a very busy work and life schedule can be challenging. It can breed irritation, tiredness, and frustration. Introspection, meditation, and exercises to gain better calm and composure can help you in such time. Taking online lessons from life coaches and giving yourself time to think about your actions, decisions and thought processes will help you become a better person in life while enhancing your relaxation quotient to deal with the changes in life.
Give a Shout Out To Old Friends
Social distancing and Lockdown measures have to be followed to protect precious life and the future of our world from the threat of Coronavirus pandemic. However, it doesn’t mean that you have to be any less social during this period. Thanks to the internet, this is the perfect time for you to re-connect with your old friends that have been out of reach due to your busy work schedule. And COVID-19 outbreak presents the perfect icebreaker for you to strike up a conversation and get back the chemistry you had in your relationship before.
Pick Up a Book
If you are an avid reader like me, you must have a long list of books to finish during this lockdown. But, if you are not, I would suggest you to pick one book that you like and soon you will start liking your time away from your well organized and packed work and life schedules.
I would suggest new book readers to pick up books that you ‘like’ and not that you feel you ‘should’ read. Doing something you like will help you get into this habit faster and before this lockdown is over, you will feel like a new person with newly acquired knowledge, ideas, and perspective for the future.
Organizing Personal Life
In this day and age, we are all rapidly moving towards professional goals with extreme focus. Of course, it is great to have ambition and to create a name in the world. However, in our pursuit for the dream career we often forget to manage a healthy personal life. In my opinion as a business leader and entrepreneur, personal life cannot be overlooked as it plays a major role in stabilizing your pursuit of career goals.
And you can use this time during lockdown to focus on organizing your personal life better. By saying ‘organizing personal lives’ we are not just talking about material parts of your life, it also involves managing personal relations, activities, duties, choices and plans. Spending time in introspection and meditation can also help you understand how to go about organizing your personal life better.
Learn a New Skill
It can be for your career or to help you out in your personal life, you can use this time to learn a new skill. Think about it, the musical instrument you wanted to learn for years now, or a new language you want to pick up to get a career boost. It can be anything and with the internet at your fingertips, you can easily access the training you need and achieve something that was your dream or something that can help you climb that career ladder a bit faster.
In conclusion, I would like to just reiterate that we are all in this together and by following the social distancing and lockdown measures we can protect each other from the viral spread. However, I also feel that we owe it to the world to use this time apart from our daily routine to become a better person through personal growth. And as we have discussed, there are tons of ways to go about it!
When we train our mind to accept Obstacles or Disruptions, we stop asking ‘WHY’ and start Asking ‘WHAT’, what can I do to find the way, forward? Therefore, Obstacle is the way.
