Over the last couple of months now, life has drastically changed around the world and impacted the people’s approach of living life. Though this virus has brought with it a wave of negative outcomes manifested into threat, panic, rumor mongering in addition to terrible shocks of illness and death, but it also highlighted some important life lessons, changed the way of living world over and rejuvenated approach of how one must act in difficult times like in current situation of COVID pandemic.
Economic recession, suspension of global trade, unemployment, impact on education and overall down gradation in median growth of countries are some of the negative effects that COVID-19 has brought in world. But on a lighter note, with pollution and greenhouse gas emissions have fallen across continents as countries try to contain the spread of the new coronavirus. Is this just a fleeting change, or could it lead to longer-lasting falls in emissions?.
Covid-19 has taken a grim global toll on lives, health services, jobs and mental health. But, if anything, it has also shown the difference that communities can make when they look out for each other – and that’s one lesson that could be invaluable in dealing with climate change.
Some valuable life lessons from COVID-19 times
- There’s no doubt in it that staying home is difficult, because one feels bored and aimless. Some might even feel that it’s a breach of their individual right. However, when it comes to the greater good, one should always be willing to sacrifice a little bit of that freedom for the safety of all. We all must keep a fine balance between individual concerns and public safety being an ever changing thing. It is not only about washing one’s hands with soap or using hand sanitizer to keep the disease at its lowest low by just befooling virus through washing and rubbing certain things and doing other unnecessarily dangerous things that magnetizes disease towards its greater devastation. By not adhering to scientific protocols to decrease disease transmission rate, by not maintaing social distancing as required and not being loyal to self and to your fellow beings is the worst human strategy to adopt amid these testing times. Washing your hands is a good thing to practice, but at the end it is all about your overall general hygiene, hygiene of mind before hygiene of one’s physique whether there’s a virus or not. Killing viruses of inflitude is the biggest favour you can do to humanity anytime.
- COVID pandemic has left people out from their normal routine, out from their offices and out from their industrial setups. During this time, many people learned that their jobs were possible to do from home, but by not giving a serious thought to it before, has left them dumb stuck and made them to realize that it is not every time about one’s own security and individuality, but we must yearn for all. We must have that thought at the back of our minds, that nothing is ever there for us. Times like these can left our businesses and jobs helter skelter where from it is really impossible for us to sustain if we have not that strategy at the back end. Most jobs have certain amount of work that can be done remotely. Without the virus in place and without such pandemic crisis in action, there should still be some system in place that will promote work-life balance to run ourselves smoothly.
- According to a study done by the University of Birmingham, the right to Internet access should be considered a human right. People unable to get online, particularly in developing countries like ours seriously lack meaningful approach to influence the global system shaping their everyday lives. It is essentially an important requirement to be able to contact family, friends and work from home if necessary. But to this all, Internet is the only way to do so. Restrictions over virtual modes of communication always put one in darkness. A person living in restricted zone has in no way an approach to deal with crisis like these by not keeping him/herself updated with newer developments in this regard. More so, education, research, home work is seriously affected if we have no access to global network and if we are restricted not only in expressing our opinion, but to testify others opinions also.
- The only hope we find right now is in researchers and doctors who are there in the battle field working day in and day out for our safety and concern, driving the recovery of the world by putting their lives in danger, making sure we all are safe in our homes. If this scary time has taught us anything, it’s that doctors and researchers will be the ones who get us out of this mess. At the moment, hundreds of scientists scramble to find a coronavirus treatment. Doctors do all the handy work to keep us updated and to keep the disease in control by monitoring, testing and treating affected people, thereby protecting the general integrity of humanity. We need to re-evaluate and reassess how much money they are provided?. We also need to give a serious thought that how much money countries spend in healthcare, research and other allied health sectors ensuring we are properly equipped to counter any challenge like these?. We also need to rethink our policies of doing more research in frontier areas that pose a serious threat to both humanity as well as to environment in consonance.
- The COVID pandemic has brought a new order to social structure and system by making us to realize the importance of talking every day to friends, relatives and preferentially to our families despite of our busy schedules. Now that we can’t go out and keep busy, the best way to combat loneliness is to be in regular contact with friends and family. This is the time to have long talks and deep conversations. Don’t forget human connection during these crucial times is important. These things are indispensible to our true human culture and integral ethos. We must not be so busy in our daily routine to forget our own life needs, the needs of our family and the needs of humanity in general, because at the end, these things support one’s dignified exit, other things hardly pave a person anything to yearn for long than deceit and defamation.
- The most important things we must realize now amid these dangerous crisis is to learn to appreciate nature in its entirety. We can explore the nature for our own needs but not to exploit because it will retreat us in most dangerous ways like these. We must keep a fine balance in upgrading our science and technology but not at the cost of nature and its reservoirs for it hits back badly. Pollution, over exploitation, greed to mention a few have given us nothing in the long run but has put our own survival in danger. Playing our true part in ecological niche will yearn lifelong benefits entrusted with our survival and dignity, but acting otherwise will fine tune things for bigger worst.
Now as the pictures of clean Venice canals, dolphins in Cagliari and swans in Milan are coming out on internet with many naturalists arguing are the signs of nature healing itself when people are not around. While air is undoubtedly less polluted because of a drop in greenhouse gases’ emissions, the impact of self-isolation on the environment is looking visible from a distance. In fact, nature has been healing long before the COVID-19 pandemic forced most people at home and it will continue to do so with the help of good policies. While we are amid the global pandemic, COVID-19, with assessments suggesting that it will continue to get worse before it gets better, we have no choice but to learn as we go. The potential lessons fall into several categories ranging from the raw issues of epidemiology, the complex issues of crisis management, the contentious issues of politics, the practical issues of how we prepare for life after the coronavirus — assuming and hoping we will have one — and the psycho-spiritual issues of what it means for us human beings living in a world we did not create, but of which we are stewards. We must realize now our positive role we have to play in our times to make this earth a better place to live in. We must also realize that self security, these busy schedules, money and all that dignity will not work alone, if we are not equipped with some civic sense of how to protect this universe if we are to protect our integrity for anyone among our relation yet to come, if we cannot think of it for the entire humanity.
The author is a freelancer and currently working as Senior Research Fellow (DST INSPIRE) at CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine Canal Road Jammu, Jammu & Kashmir.
