In the past few months, we have seen people around the world living in fear and extreme panic due to the situation brought to us by the pandemic. COVID-19 has affected millions of people and countries all over the world in all aspects we could ever imagine.
Deaths are continuously increasing and are getting out of hand, millions of people who have been infected – that had left a significant effect on them not just physically, but also mentally and psychologically. Thousand of jobs lost, economic fences falling in front of us, and freedom being taken away. Freedom to go to places, to hug our loved ones, to eat out w/ family, to buy things and all the many and simple things we used to do.
While everything we are facing right now is temporary, the data shows that we are still far from over. Efforts are being made all over the world, collaborations of the best minds to come up with the drugs that will make us all see the light at the end of the tunnel.
But amidst the adverse and negative effects of this ordeal, let’s try to take a step back and take a deep breath. Let us chose to see the silver lining of what the pandemic has to teach us. It is our primary responsibility not to let the anxiety get the best of us—5 things on my list that helped me restore my hope and change my sense of perspective.
Five benefits (or positive things) of COVID-19 outbreak:
1. The humanity we see in people.
Kindness and generosity, while it may have been real way before the pandemic, we can feel and see it all over the corner. People are sharing what they have, giving out foods, offering shelters, and volunteers to help front liners. People that are sacrificing the risk of being a carrier to deliver the service they could give no matter how big or small it is. It’s reassuring to know that people are still people at the end of the day. Willing to bring hope the best way they could. Or be the hope, the light in the middle of this dark and tough time
2. Blue sky, clearer water seas, and massive reduction in pollution.
We start to see the irony. We may temporarily get people laid off, but we go home with nothing. While businesses were closed, mainly big factories and airlines, we can feel the effect of it on the other side as we begin realizing that mother nature is healing. We have seen reports from Nasa and Cnnclimate about the quality of the air we start getting. This clearly shows the side benefits which impact the current and next generation.
3. The blessing of being in quarantine.
Most of us have been caught off by the thing called Life. Study shows that the majority of working people spend more time outside the house. The pandemic has just given us a rare opportunity to strengthen our connections with our family. This may not be the best and ideal set up, but we were given the token to savor the moments we almost missed having. Slowing down. Dining in w/ your children. A shallow or meaningful conversation with your partner. Catching up with our other siblings or parents. All these, as mundane as it sounds, we were able to enjoy because of the lockdown.
4. We learn to appreciate the importance of every individual at the frontline.
People who have a huge part in getting us to get through to this outbreak. People who we need more than ever and who work tirelessly and unselfishly every day. Medical practitioners, government officials, bankers, grocery staff, and everyone who is risking their lives to go out in the battlefield. We have seen the positive effect of it when people around the world start appreciating.
We can see it from the news and all over social media corners the initiatives to give thanks and encouragement. People are leaning on their balcony or windows, sending their hearts and voices into the open air. People are clapping or making music together to show their gratitude. Churches, regardless of their beliefs, have reunited to send prayers, and thanks—all for a common cause. We only get to see this once in a lifetime. We find so much comfort knowing that there is so much good in the world.
5. Life is fleeting. Things are temporary, and anything we have today can be robbed or gone in a snap.
The pandemic has taught us valuable lessons about Life that everything can change quickly. COVID-19 knows no status, gender, ranks, or race. We are all vulnerable. Soon as we start to realize it, we begin taking actions to give importance to the things that matter. We start being grateful for the food we eat, for the job we have, for the people around us. We take responsibility for spending the money wisely left in our banks. These things will carry forward once this pandemic is over and the new normal starts. We all go back to our lives with the new normals, better and wiser individuals, hopefully.
No one knows when this will be over, but if there is one thing we can practice learning that is looking at the beauty in this tragedy.
