How a pandemic changed me for good!
A narrative of self-discovery.
“A time of crisis is not just a time of anxiety and worry. It gives a chance, an opportunity, to choose well or to choose badly. “
— Desmond Tutu
It started at the beginning of March when South Africa was first made aware of our first COVID-19 case. Fast forward to later that month, the president announces the country’s first national lockdown for 21 days which South Africans would later learn would continue for eternity.
OK maybe not eternity but it darn feels like it.
At the start of 2020, I decided it was time for a change. Unintentionally, I decided to resign from the company I was working for over six years during the time of the lockdown.
My initial concern was that I needed to be mindful of my health and that of my father and sister as we currently live under the same roof. I had no sense of worry around material matters like money due to various factors such as communication from my company that my salary won’t be affected.
To be honest, my soul was yearning for an opportunity where it could be free from the constraints that one adopts when starting their young adult life. In my mid-twenties, I became highly self-aware based on certain struggles and triumphs I had endured — it’s been growing ever since.
One morning I woke up as I usually would and realized that I have so much free time since I no longer need to commute to work. I happened to be scrolling on my Instagram and saw a post about a Mindvalley masterclass on Life Visioning (Mindvalley teaches you the things that actually matter most in life. And we do it by bringing in the latest cutting edge techniques, the world’s best teachers, and a powerful learning platform that is the best of its kind in the world.) that sparked my already self-aware mind to think with an abundant and purposeful mindset.
I chose a journey of spending more quiet time with myself, absorbing information, speaking my truth to friends, and learning to decipher what adds value to my life in the present and in the direction I’m steering my life. I started reading a book called The Power of Habit which I would recommend to anybody that's wanting to make habitual shifts within their life.
“there’s nothing you can’t do if you get the habits right.” — Charles Duhigg
I started processing all my mindful insights from all the classes, books such as Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson, The Power of Habit and various conversations I found myself having with friends by writing in my journal that was gathering dust in my bookshelf.
I developed my goals and a morning routine that now has become a habit. I write in my journal how I feel after having woken up, touch base on any dreams I might have had, and most importantly my affirmations/gratitudes for the day.
It’s day 3000 of the national lockdown in my mind yet I am still going strong.
That was one but of many habits that caused my mind shift to take place without me realizing.
Above all the things I could acknowledge, I figured out that the most fundamental belief that will be the underlining factor of my actions:
“To live a life of guidance; to guide others and to be guided.”
In life sometimes we need major intervention to help us look within and the pandemic helped open that door for me.
Key Takeaway
We all go through tough narratives in our lifetime but there hasn’t been a period as the present where we are enduring some level of change collectively as a human race in the 21st century.
I don’t know where you at in your life but my one wish for you is to look deep within and ask yourself,
“What belief/s will govern my existence on this planet?”
