Pandemic and Life: How to Change and Survive

Wherever you look, there is only doom and gloom. How to survive and sustain in this depressing time is the existential question of a new normal. Coping with it requires many lifestyle changes. Are we ready to look at life in a new light in the post-pandemic world?

Farming is an activity that links us to our basic connection with life and earth. Not just for producing food or other essential goods, but for this mental connection that we do farming. Farming has a great psychological impact as it feeds into the generational memories of survival, discovery, and the joy of watching life emerge. It is a great way to ensure food safety and nutritional safety. It may also grow into a supplementary income-generating activity.

Rearing cows, goats, or poultry also meets a family's nutritional needs at a low cost. Animals are such amazing companions when it comes to coping with social isolation. A prerequisite of success in livestock rearing on a homestead basis is the collective involvement of the family in related daily chores. Composting, biogas production, mixed cropping that supplies cattle feed, are all crucial cogs on the wheel that help the farmer create a progressing cycle, a relationship where one crop or one activity supports another.

In depressing times, one has to beat the blues by finding new aspects of life that add value, purpose, and beauty to life. From live plants, pictures, and beautiful objects to art projects both mundane and creative, one needs to tilt the balance more towards security and peace. Let there be more color, beauty, and pleasant things around us.

Recycling is not only about saving money but also is finding value from waste. Make a soft pillow using old clothes, upcycle the old utensils into garden pots, try to grow some vegetables from the seeds of the veggies bought for cooking, resell your unwanted and old books, the list can go on and on. Lockdowns and job loss can be made tolerable by such small steps.

A sense of vastness is what exactly you need during these claustrophobic, stay-at-home times. Simply close your eyes in the morning for a while and calm your mind. Visualize and feel nature, beauty, the infinite universe, and the mysteries of human life. Tell yourself there are so many others struggling to survive, to be happy. Be patient that things will get better.

Not everyone can sing. However, singing is also an acquired skill. You can improve your singing with a little guidance and practice. One can learn a new skill, a new language, a new craft. The learner's horizon is boundless.

You have been so far living a consumeristic life. So many things that you never actually needed were made part of your daily life as very essential things, by the market, mainly. However, you do not need many of them to live a healthy and happy life. So, cultivate a mindset that dwells in minimalism and the joys of a frugal life.

Sunrise is a time that fills you with hope. Bathe in the morning rays of light, which is good for the body and mind. Waking up early considerably draws out the day's length and fills your life with many extra hours to work, and relax.

Can we synchronize our activities with our biological clock? Studies have shown that it is beneficial. To rise with the sun and to go to bed soon after sunset is a luxury for most of us. Also, we do not want to 'waste' time by doing so. However, most of the time we spend after sunset is neither economically nor emotionally productive most often. Think about it.

Last but not least, it is through self-discipline and ritualistic routines that we can find harmony in life. To wake up at the same time every day, to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner, same time every day, to fix a time for reading, exercise, and leisure, is the way one can feel more organized and purposeful.