Everyone may have had their own set of challenges during the pandemic: some were able to use the time well, to train themselves and hone their skills whereas some felt tired and frustrated, of being home all the time and missing social life.
Not having the habit and knowledge on how to spend time alone, folks ended up indulging, trying to escape the psychological strain they were feeling due to the pandemic and the lockdown. Reports suggest that there was a huge rise in OTT platforms subscriptions and pornography consumption during this period.
Any kind of indulgence renders one to lose their vitality, tendency to feel lethargic, feeling a sense of deterioration, and a lack of inspiration. Once that becomes an addiction then there could be a prolonged phase of deterioration.
Why do we indulge? What are we trying to escape?
Being alone and cut off from social life, one is forced to face themselves. The mind when in isolation and not channelized or given direction will go to the past pain or perhaps reminiscing or creating anxiety thinking about the future, especially, given the collective fear and anxiety created by the population at large at the collective level. If one is not conscious it is very easy to be drawn into the energy of the collective.
Depression cases have risen drastically during the pandemic and these are the ones just reported, there are many who go through it but don't come out or are not aware that they are going through depression.
In the first few months of the lockdown, I saw myself being drawn into this energy where I saw myself being pulled into fear and into the resistance of what is.
I felt a sense of loneliness and discontentment seeping in. Having been a student of spirituality I recognized it and decided to address it. Deal with it and not allow it to grow, since negative thoughts and feelings take a vicious circle and one needs to apply a break consciously otherwise it has a tendency to pull the organism into deep distress and anguish.
There are ups and downs, peaks and valleys in everyone’s journey but knowing how to manage on valleys allows one to get out of the valley sooner, and knowing how to respond when at the peak will allow one to be at a peak for a longer period of time. It is important for us to realize that what happens outside is not under our control, but how we respond, is.
To protect ourselves from all that is happening around one needs a high spiritual quotient(SQ). This is something that can’t be learned in books. This is more subtle. You can get some guidance and some pointers on how you can ‘look within’, but you have to do that for yourself. Only when we spend time understanding ourselves are we able to understand why we feel the way we feel.
When we go within and experience ourselves to be the energy that animates this form and not this form itself, there is a shift in our perception. As we experience such moments more and more we gradually drop being attached to a lot of beliefs we have been holding onto. We start looking at it objectively and discerning what is working out for me and what isn’t. This way life becomes more evolutionary, and constant growth is possible. We become more accepting of ourselves and all that happens within. Consequently, we become more accepting of other people since we start understanding why people behave the way they behave. Compassion blossoms.
Going within also involves asking the right questions to yourself, also known as, self-inquiry, Why am I feeling like this? What are the thoughts which are making me feel like this? What are the beliefs which are adding fuel to such thoughts? Are those beliefs true? Such constructive inquiry would really help us question the legitimacy of our thoughts and give us the necessary space to change it.
Once we start spending time in that silence then there is a natural emergence of trust within. You start trusting the self and also start trusting existence. Trusting in existence as in you know everything that happens has some significance behind it and you trust its process. This saves us from a lot of unnecessary anxiety.
Dwelling in this space puts us in a more creative space from which we live our lives. We become more and more immune to the energy of the collective. We gain that power to exercise free will and create feelings as we want to feel and not at the mercy of the collective.
Dwell in that inner space, it is where all that the soul desires: love, joy, and peace, is accessible to it. Additionally, it is in that space our healing lies, so let's not try to escape that space and try to fill it with superficial relationships, or ‘stuff’. This space is to be dwelled into and explored. This space is to be tasted, and I promise you, you’ll love to linger around inside.
Thank you for stopping by. If you enjoyed this, explore few of my other poems / articles.
