A lot has changed in the last few weeks, and it likely won’t be going back to being completely normal any time soon. This time at home has taught me a lot, though, and I think for many, we are learning life lessons and resetting our priorities.
I think we need to hang on to these important life lessons even when we start moving forward and go back to whatever new normal awaits us. Think about it…much of how we lived our lives before this point included a ton of social media, a bunch of keeping up with the Jones’, and a sense of financial security and health invincibility because the market was doing well and we as a society were traveling like crazy and doing all kinds of new things without getting sick.
That has all come to a grinding halt. Mother earth has made us a victim of her latest punishment. We as humans need to not only stay safe and sane during this time (and please do, work to relieve stress and practice self-care please), but we also need to take this wakeup call and learn from it. We CANNOT keep going as we were. It’s not sustainable.
So, what life lessons am I referring to? I made a list of some of the things that have changed for me, or come to light. Check it out and see if you agree, or if you’d have anything to add.
Life Lessons from this Pandemic
1 -Relationships above everything else
This is a must and I don’t think we were doing this enough. Now we are forced to, and I’m sure some families are at each other’s last nerve. But, I think we should take a minute and appreciate what we are being given: a chance to reconnect and understand each other. A chance to work on our interpersonal relationships, let go of past issues, forgive each other, make new memories and get creative with how we are spending our time together.
Life Lessons: I think this is the most important life lesson to take away. The people closest to you deserve your time and attention, and vice versa. Use this time to reforge these relationships so that you can carry them with you for the rest of ever. No more excuses for not having enough time to do so; we have enough technology at our fingertips to stay connected no matter what. For those who feel they can’t reach out to family, remember not every family is made of blood. So, find your people, your loved ones, and use this time to strengthen the bonds you do have.
2 – Health and Wellness are SO Important
I hope everyone that once took their health for granted, and their access to medications, now realizes how lucky we’ve been thus far. I also hope everyone says “ok time to make health a priority”. Until you are taking care of yourself you will not be able to fight. If you think this is the only pandemic we are going to have, NOPE. With how connected our world is, this is bound to happen again.
Life lesson: We have to redefine our view of fitness and health. I’m not saying you need to become a bodybuilder, but I definitely pay more attention to food and my activity levels. I think that working developing healthy habits and build a healthy lifestyle is much more sustainable, and small changes can make a huge difference. I’ve heard the phrase “think of food like it’s medicine”; it’s so true. We have to eat anyway, lets use it to work for us and keep us healthy (versus what a lot of people do with eating fast food and the like and it makes them ill).
Take care of yourself now so that your body and mind can fight for you later. Take action. #Fuelup.
A motivational quote to further inspire you to get healthy:
…life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass…
Maya Angelou
3 -Decreasing Pollution Benefits Us and the Planet
Climate change is real. One of the good things to come from this situation is that it has put a halt on production and factories have shut down. Air pollution levels are at an all time low and animals are coming out to play.
Life lesson: I think this is one of the most important lessons ever, the planet doesn’t need us; we need it. We need to start respecting the ground we live on and take care of it because by doing so we will extend our ability to live in it and we’ll make life better for ourselves.
4 – We Really Don’t Need to Spend as Much as We Usually Do
Yea, how many people under normal circumstances would have online shopped and gone to the mall about five times now? I could probably fall into this category. Spending money is a wonderful stress reliever hehe.
Life lesson: How much of our spending is actually necessary? I’ve saved a lot of money in the last month alone mainly by not eating out and not buying things I don’t need. Funny thing, I don’t feel like I’m missing out.
Hopefully, this has shown us that we don’t need much to be happy, what we have is good enough and we need to be thankful for it; the rest is just excess and look how easy it is to cut it out of our lives! Those items you thought you couldn’t live without? Guess what, you’re living without them now and you’re surviving!
So, let’s reconfigure how we treat our hard-earned dollars and go forward spending wisely and showing more respect for our money.
5 -We All Need an Emergency Fund
This is the longest rainy day/period ever. For anyone who couldn’t figure out why they needed an emergency fund before, I hope it all makes sense now. I personally made a decision at the start of this whole thing to stockpile more cash, just in case. I’m glad I chose that route because I will definitely be getting a pay cut at work.
Life lesson: You should have about 6 months worth of expenses put away and it should be untouched except for in an emergency. This might seem like a lot, however, the purpose is to give you a cushion if you lose your job or need some time to transition between jobs. Going forward, this is also your pandemic relief fund. Basically it’s so that you don’t go into debt or have to sell you prized possessions in order to get by.
6 – Career back up plans are important
So many people are suffering pay cuts or losing their jobs during this time. A common theme to talk about this online I’ve noticed is advocating for multiple income streams or starting a side hustle. While I think that’s a viable option, not everyone can do that. Either their skill sets don’t allow them to or they are already bogged down so much by their primary jobs or some other reason entirely.
Life Lesson: Yes multiple sources of income are one way to cushion yourself in the future, but I think we should all also consider career back up plans going foward. This crisis has shown us that you never know what can happen; even healthcare is not a secure profession (many people in the frontlines are taking pay cuts, as are subspecialty services that only do elective procedures or outpatient care). We all should have an idea of what else we could do with our skills; or what areas we’d be willing to learn so that if we’re forced to, we can pivot.
Times are changing, and more change in coming. It’s important that we adapt to these life changing events and be prepared for any possibility.
7 – Social media exaggerates
How many are completely overwhelmed or frustrated by social media? There’s only so much any brain can take. Now we all have so much time on our hands and I’m sure much of it is spent online. I’m definitely reading up more and more. But, as I’m sure you are finding out: it actually makes this worse. I’ve also encountered a lot of viral stories that have turned out to be not true (or taken completely out of context).
Life lesson: There’s a lot on social media that is exaggerated, falsified or taken out of context. I had to stop reading stories because of all of these reasons. I hope that everything you read online, from here on out, you take with a large grain of salt.
Find trustworthy news outlets to understand the facts; trust the experts who are doing their best and working tirelessly to bring you updates; and most importantly, take a break from your phones. You don’t have to always be connected.
8 – Our teachers are so so important
How many parents are home schooling right now? How many think that poking their eyes out with a hot stick would be less painful? I don’t have kids, but I can only imagine the frustration.
Life lesson: Our teachers are some of the most essential people in our society. They really work hard and deserve so much more respect and money that they currently get. When schools reopen and we continue moving forward with life, let’s give our teachers a huge shoutout and advocate for their support.
9 – We need to slow down
We live in a world that is “go go go”. We are constantly under pressure to be productive, to compete and be better than our peers or ourselves, and to never take breaks. While this has resulted in many of us having a successful career, as I mentioned earlier, this isn’t sustainable. We are burning out, we are getting tired, and we are hiding our depression. In essence, we have lost our work-life balance. We need to get it back and start living our best lives.
Life Lessons: We need to slow down. We need to live one day at a time and pay attention to where we are at. I know this is much easier said than done, and I’m not saying you shouldn’t plan for the future. I just think that we need to do a better job of being present and being more mindful. We all know that life is short; let’s wake up from this and try to really enjoy life and make every moment count.
10 – Mental health is important
What we’re going through right now, dealing with being confined, dealing with boredom, going crazy in our homes, learning to cope with our fears and struggling to keep our sanity….there are some people who fight this battle every day, every week, every year. To simplify it further, life is made up of all kinds of nonsensical bullshit that we have to deal with. Usually, we are able to ignore our negative thoughts by hiding in our work or escaping to brunch.
Life Lesson: Mental health is an important part of our health and needs to be continuously addressed, just like our physical health is. It’s not taboo. It’s real and it’s normal. I see a therapist, and I just had a session via Zoom. It’s possible to make this work, it just needs to be brought to light and made a priority. I hope that this pandemic will bring to light for people the need to have regular mental health checks and care.
11 – Who we consider essential has changed.
I’m sure our perspective has shifted in the last few weeks about who really matters for us to function as individuals and as a society. I don’t think I was so far gone, but some of the essential workers currently still at it? Yea, I took them for granted too.
Life Lesson: It’s not the online influencers that matter most, or the makeup artists that you can’t live without. No, it’s our healthcare workers – including everyone who works in a hospital – our minimum wage workers and labor force that do all the back end work that we never notice, and our banks and grocery stores that provide us with the core essentials we can’t survive without.
Let’s all take a minute to recognize these people, be grateful that they exist and that we have access to them. As we come out of this quarantine, let’s continue to show gratitude, compassion, and kindness for them and recognize their hard work. Let’s change our mindset and take care of them as they care for us. Let’s NOT take them for granted anymore.
12 – We are all Equal
Illness and natural disasters are great equalizers and they also highlight the disparities in our society.
Life Lesson: Money, status, fame and looks have no bearing on what happens to you, nor does it protect you in any way. At the end of the day we are all susceptible to the same human vices, illnesses, and consequences.
In the same way, those that do have money and influence may be better able to treat themselves or get out of sticky situations.
We need to remember that we are all human. We all deserve compassion, eq
In Summary
The situation has shed light on so much about life for me. I hope that everyone comes away with a better understanding and appreciation for the things that truly matter AND the things that we need to hang on to when this is all over. We need to learn from this experience so that, moving forward, we are better, as a society, as individuals. I hope this is helping everyone to reprioritize their time and life purpose. I hope you are able to use this time to find yourself and realize what truly matters to you and allows you to live your best life.
Mother nature is teaching us so many lessons right now. Let’s carry these lessons with us as we move forward so that we, as a society, are better as a whole because of this experience. Let’s not make the same mistakes we have been making.