Lessons from the Pandemic

The 40 odd days of lockdown we experienced in India has taught me quite a few lessons. I have put down a few that I think are the most important I have learnt.

Don’t control the uncontrollable

Till a couple of months ago life was set to a pattern and rhythm. It was running like clockwork precision. Time was the most premium commodity then. Now, time seems like a surplus commodity. Initial days of lockdown, I felt as if I had the potential to sprint a race, but I was tied to a pole! What a waste of energy. Wait for a second… Aren’t everyone around me going through the same? What is so special about me? Each day as it passed, I began to understand I was getting frustrated with something that I neither created nor in a position to control. I realised my anger and agonising is not the solution. Then, what is the solution?

Patience is not a virtue

When you can’t change things around you, when you can’t have things your way, patience is not a virtue, it is a necessity. It is indispensable. My impatience can’t kill the virus. It only hurts me and destroys my mental peace. Patience was necessary to slow my pace. Abundant time and fast pace are a deadly combination. It left with me a sense of being incomplete. It seemed like there was a vacuum and there was no way I could fill it.

I learnt a lot thanks to the community I live in and WhatsApp groups of my friends and family. Each one was doing something to keep themselves sane and busy. They were sharing their experiences and experiments not as if it is their right to brag, but genuinely with the belief of sharing and caring. All these helped in telling myself, ‘this too shall pass. Just be patient.’

Compromising is not bad

When my anger and frustration settled, I began to think is my life compromised? Life is not always a multiple-choice exam and in today’s times, compromising is not bad at all. It is ensuring my survival.

My time, as I lived till then, was compromised and not my life. I am still alive, breathing and living. I am still able to do some of the things, if not all.

Positivity is your choice

I have learnt to take each day as it comes. There are no expectations and there is no analysis of how each day has progressed. I have learnt that being positive helps. Shutting yourself from thinking about what is going to happen next, what may happen tomorrow is important. Being grateful about things that have happened in your life so far helps you be positive about the future. My mind today is jaundiced. The Virus is still in the air. Gloom and doom of the economy may exist for many more days. Everyone’s survival is a question mark. Can I control these? Can I change these? Will my frustration about these things help me? Answers to all these are in the negative. 

Staying positive helps me to stay afloat, safe and healthy. It is great medicine for the mind and the soul. And it comes free!

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Radha Radhakrishnan

Radha Radhakrishnan has over 25 years of experience in corporate communications and marketing across different industries and geographies. She has built a reputation as a storyteller and a creative thinker. She has mentored social entrepreneurial startups and has been a visiting faculty at premier communications institutes in India. She is currently the global head of corporate communications at Wipro Enterprises. She anchors the weekly PR and Communication podcast, Mrigashira.