COVID is VIVID: Finish Strong

                                                                             

COVID is VIVID

COVID-19 outbreak has taught humanity a lot of things. They say that everything happens for a good reason. Which means, everything that happens is not good but happens for a good reason. We might not know the reason right away, but, in retrospect, we will get the 'why' behind every situation.

What can be the potential good reason behind the Corona Virus Situation? I truly believe that the universe is preparing us for what is going to unfold shortly. This is the time to invest the skills which would come handy in the future. The universe first prepares us and then puts us in the situation. I have come up with these essential skills that COVID-19 is teaching us:

Solitude

 I would like to rephrase the term" Social Distancing" with SOLITUDE. From time immemorial, we all have known the benefits of solitude. It is a great place to visit but not that great a place to stay. Every human being should practice visiting solitude. People spend thousands of dollars on vacation packages to get privacy and solitude. The mother nature today has given us that opportunity to experience it from the comfort of our home and with our family.

Experience the immense benefit of solitude and silence. When you cannot look outside the only place that's left is to  LOOK WITHIN. Take up a new routine, try meditating, listen to high vibrational music and keep the vibrations of the house high. Any kind of negative energy be it in the form of a disease cannot live in a High Vibrational place. 

It takes 21 days to form a new habit. We all are mostly going to work from home for 2 weeks which means it is the best time to take up new personal habits and weave them in your life.

Here are some of Deep Breathing and Meditation videos. Do try it and take it up as a family activity. Remember, kids always learn what you do not what you say. Keeping a calm mind in any situation as the most important skill you might ever teach your children.

Meditative Mind: healing music     https://youtu.be/jK2hS40pr-g

Tibetian Healing Sound:  https://youtu.be/OW7TH2U4hps   

Guided Meditation to Yoga Nidra:  https://youtu.be/7H0FKzeuVVs 

Family Bonding:

Take a deep breath and look around. This is one of the most precious moments wherein you are surrounded by only those people who matter the most in your life. Mother nature is telling us to focus on what is important. The purpose of our existence is in front of us. We all know that we have neglected our family time a lot of times. Our social commitments, networking dinners, parties with friends and get-togethers have moved us away from each other. This is the time to bring it all back. Cherish every moment that you are spending with your loved ones safe in your house.

The whole world today is forced to stay only with family. Take this time to equip your children with the skills needed for this decade. We certainly cannot win a new battle with old weapons. Today the skills that we need to teach our kids are resilience, persistence, responsibility and financial literacy. We are on the foothills of recession and our kids need to understand the repercussion of these situations. Not everything is learned in the schools, there is a lot that you can teach them. This is the perfect time to have those conversations. Believe me, these testing times are the best times to ingrain a life lesson. The receiver is very vulnerable, and the impact is long-lasting.

Resilience

I would say, this is the number one and the most important skill for the coming decade. As Sheryl Sandberg says: " You are not born with a fixed amount of resilience. Like a muscle, you can build it up. "

Today when the world is facing a rapid transition and an economic recession is looming over all of us, it is very important to teach our kids to bounce back from failures, cope up with stress and keep moving forward.

Some are born resilient and others must work their way into it. Some ways to build this skill is through:

Reframing the situation: look at the brighter side of every situation

Meditate: look within for all your answers and things will start to fall in place

Visualize, how bad could it be: By this I mean, visualize that things could have been a lot worse. You will start appreciating the current situation.

Daily Journal: Form a habit of writing a daily journal and start with 3 things that happened in the day which you are grateful for. You will slowly build up on your gratefulness reserve. Also, daily journaling will help you to document your failures and mistakes and have a clear perspective on the same.

Financial Literacy

We all need to be financially literate. This is a great time to strike those financial conversations with your kids. Remember, you must teach them how to nicely survive in the recession and thrive in a boom. Teach them both and keep them ahead of the curve.  Some ways that you can do this is by teaching them to invest in stocks and explaining to them how the market works. The only way to be successful is to have your money work when you are asleep. Today is the best day to talk about this and help them to face this decade strongly.

Mindfulness

Today the whole world's safety has boiled down to a small task done mindfully and that is: washing hands properly for 20 seconds. This might look like a small thing but imagine if not done correctly, it can bring the entire human race to its knees.

This is life, it lies in small things, small pleasures, small tasks. Keep doing them mindfully and bigger things will be taken care of. This is the time to teach mindfulness to kids. Mindfulness is about being conscious or aware of the present moment. Focus on this moment and do it right and the rest will fall in place. Some ways you can teach mindfulness to kids is:

Gratitude journal: Have your kids maintain a gratitude journal. They will learn to record their day mindfully. You can order one from amazon and gift them. Here is the link to the one that I always gift my students: https://www.abebooks.com/Good-Days-Start-Gratitude-Week-Guide/30225630366/bd?cm_mmc=ggl-_-US_Shopp_Trade-_-new-_-naa&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9dX5tZGo6AIVpP_jBx0YCwBzEAkYBiABEgL4xvD_BwE

Eating Mindfully: Have a noise-free eating policy. No gadgets, no TV, no texting on the dinner table. Have them concentrate on food and eat. Talking to the family members is ok but no talks about how stressful the day was. All of that can wait till the dinner is over. Only positive thoughts are discussed while eating. This looks like an easy practice, but it is easier said than done. Take this opportunity to start this practice while all of you are at home and having all the meals together.

In the end I would conclude by saying that; Nothing is a coincidence, and everything is pre-planned for a good reason. We will all come out stronger from this but let's all learn from this pandemic. Stay safe and make the most of this Solitude. This won't last long!!