Before COVID-19 our lives were running in different rhythms. The competitive race of earning sustainable living or career establishment and growth had made us workaholic, leaving very little to no space and time to think of ourselves let alone our near and dear ones.
Corona changed the dynamics and ways we used to live. Health-precautionary lockdown made us work from home. This provided us an opportunity to rethink and change our lifestyles. It became a new normal for us. We came to realize that it is not bad after all to live and work at home, connect with our families, reestablish connections with our loved ones, take care of our well-being, work on fitness, and do all that helps our spirits stay motivated.
The employers too realized that in this day and age when IT rules our lives, working remotely is as beneficial for them (it helps cut in-office use of resources such as energy) as for the employees.
I too as a working person benefited from lockdown in learning to strike a balance between work and life, and here is how it helped me:
1. It helped me reconnect with people
While commuting to workplace, at office and back to home, I used to come across many people on a daily basis, but they all were strangers to me any day and every day, unless I dared to engage them in some talk. It was like I was in crowd but all alone. In lockdown, I came to a realization that It was important to connect with people in real sense. I came in communication with many of my relatives who I had lost touch with, and it was so wonderful to know they still cared about me and my family a lot. I too appreciated their affection either in words or sending them gifts. I, for example, presented my auntie with a necklace gift in addition to my mother on Mother’s day, which I bought on online, and he was so pleased to receive it.
2. It helped me rethink and reorganize
I was completely consumed and drained by office work, did not have much time or seriousness of thought to reorganize myself. Lockdown changed that. I for the first time started paying attention to myself and my family and reorganized myself according to each priority. I was amazed to find how wonderful life has been all along but I unfortunately was loath to it.
3. It helped move into fitness
I felt embarrassed to find out how badly I had been neglecting myself in my health, fitness and overall body’s well being. Amid lockdowns, I found time to see myself in the mirror every now and then, even casually, and caught up on with an idea that I should do something about my fitness. It all started with a morning walk on my treadmill and I am on a regular course of exercise and fitness since. It helped me to connect with my own self and I felt it very pleasant.
4. It helped me immerse into my home
A home is a house – a mere structure of bricks and walls – until we really immerse ourselves into it. In lockdowns, I for the first-time realized I was ignoring my family, especially my children. They needed my attention more than anything else, I could not come up to their expectations. But no more. In addition to my office work, I managed to find time to fulfill their needs during the day, and when free I mingled with them more than ever before.
5. It helped me get appreciated
It was not just that I was unable to strike a balance between work and life while working in office full time, I was not also appreciated for the effort I had been putting in to restore as much balance I could.
While working in the same mode at home, my family came to realize it wasn’t as easy to work and then pay much needed attention to home and family too. They started appreciating it, not just in words but by offering some retreats every now and then. My daughter has recently presented me with a wrist watch gift, which she says is a special item from an online store called Ownage Fashion, to help me keep up with the time.
Conclusion:
It is so wonderful to see my family caring for me as much as I do for them, and mutual feelings of appreciation, reward, affection and love, has made our family whole again. It was due to lockdowns amid COVID-19, which we all want to go away as quickly as possible, was a blessing in disguise.
Just to mention, I did all above while strictly adhering to Corona social distancing and safety guidelines.