Get your priorities straight

This blog is written during the Corona outbreak (Covid-19). Week 1 of isolation.

There have been many posts and messages about the ‘spiritual message’ of ‘Why is this happening to us?’. And I’m going to join in on these messages. It’s amazing to see how we lost ourselves in the busyness of our lives and now we are forced (even by our governments) to stay at home and do literally nothing. 

We were joking at home that this period is a very good test for couples. It may as well go two ways; there either will be a baby boom 9 months from now; or there will be a lot of divorces and break-ups in the summer. Because honestly; how often are you actually with your spouse, 24/7 in each others’ presence, trying to balance work and private life? Who’s working? Who is taking care of the kids? Can you have an actual conversation with each other besides: ‘How was your day?’.

Because this question you cannot ask anymore. You are part of each others’ days now. 

Can you at all work? Or are you one of those unfortunate ones who worked in the hospitality and entertainment industry (or as a hairdresser or physiotherapist, etc) and nothing left to do? What are you going to do with the given freedom? Can you work it out with your partner/friends/family/important people; make plans together how you will together manage the situation so you will come out of it not totally broke and ending up on the street?

This is also the time to get your priorities straight. What is the most important thing at the moment? I’m in a situation where most of the important people (family,friends) are all in literally different countries within Europe. I cannot just go to them. I can only hope that they are safe and stay safe, and keep well and healthy. But it’s more important to me than ever to be in touch with them. Now I have the time which I should have made all the time. 

Are you actually able to stop now and relax? Now, that you have time actually freed up because you cannot make any plans with friends; go to the gym or the cinema. I’m afraid I know the answer to these questions. Because I also have troubles. I’m now, more than ever, ‘on’ all the time. I’m online all the time to check whether I can do something for work. I’m online on Facebook and Whatsapp to check on my beloved ones. I’m on all the news platforms I can read so I can follow the developments in different countries and know how this will affect me and the people around me. And it’s very tiring. Therefore, it is more important than ever to structure our thoughts and be off whenever it’s possible. For this, we need focus. Creating focus is also more difficult than ever due to the even more distractions and prickles we experience. But it’s important to slow down, take a couple of deep breaths and shut everything off.

How you do it is up to you. Go for a walk. Exercise. Lay down and – yes, I’m going to say it! – watch Netflix. Watch something simple that does not require your mind to be ON but just to laugh off the silly scenes. Watch movies and series now the same way you watched before we got locked in. It used to be a part of our everyday life but now we have our news channels on all the time and eagerly waiting for the next developments; the next measures from our governments and when we can finally go outside again. 

Because we will. But it’s up to us what we’re going to do with our regained physical freedom again. Are we going to go back to being slaves of our everyday routine? Or are we going to be able to stop and see the beauty in this world? From now onwards. Different priorities. Different focus. 

Imagine what a brand new world we could be stepping out into….