5 Great Lessons Learned From ‘The Great Lockdown’

A journey to happier, healthier and richer self.

I strongly believe that nothing is purely negative or positive. It’s a bit of both as even the worst situation may end up having some good impact. And the reason why we don’t always see it this way is that we can’t see a full picture of the experiences as we’re facing them. We see only one — our perspective, not the full view.

If we’d have the ability to see it so, our minds would open, our personal world would expand, and we’d all transform.

I did become a happier, healthier and more peaceful individual — inside out, during the Covid-19 lockdown and crisis. How? Thanks to all these.

Presence

COVID, regardless of where it came from and whether it’s good or bad, managed to do one mindblowing thing in the history of humankind.

It stopped the time and pulled us all into the present.

It’s not that the present wasn’t there before or that we didn’t get to know and experience it at all, we did. Sometimes. We were at least familiar with the word as a concept but it seemed to be vaguely distant from us and foreign — an abstract idea that was so easy to avoid and escape. The same way it’s easy to avoid the gym or exercise when we least feel like doing it. Our minds over time mastered avoiding the present moment and got busy by either being constantly drawn to the past or taken all the way to the unknown future.

Present moment always seemed too difficult to grasp, hold on to, even define. It is, in the end, only there for a blink of an eye and gone in another. Such a passing moment, right?

Or, is it not?

Thanks to ‘Covid-19’, I understood that this presence — the present moment is not really passing, it’s constant. It is, in fact, all that there is. And if we allow ourselves just to be, we start feeling it. And it surrounds us like the air we breathe. And fills us up.

I write a little more about it here, sections 3 and 4.

Do you know how we sometimes are in the present but aren’t really present? Let’s say you’re in the room, sitting on the laptop, but a part of you— your mind is not there — wandering in the past or future, or something unrelated to the moment and the task you’re also attempting to do at that time. That’s when and how we’re losing our presence. We’re there physically, but not mentally. Or, we’re there physically and mentally but not emotionally— say while we do our shopping, washing, cleaning, tidying up, admin work — and we don’t want to be there, so we try to rush whatever we are doing, just so that present moment passes quickly because we can’t wait to be somewhere else, doing something else. That’s how we’re depriving ourselves of our presence.

We end up devaluing those activities and the moment itself if we don’t pay them all equal respect. Regardless of whether it is a task we enjoy more or less, it is there, for us at that moment. And so it deserves our full attention.

They all deserve our full attention and equal respect as a part of our present. Regardless of the level of comfort they give us or enjoyability factor. And guess what happened when I pushed myself not to rush anything, not to multitask — divide my attention, or keep the resistance and just be there?

I started enjoying every moment — equally. Everything done in the present has become joyful and enjoyable.

I started enjoying doing dishes, kitchen cleaning, washing bathroom or my hair, writing emails, planting flowers, dusting, changing bed sheets, hand washing, sewing clothes etc. Because I accepted that it is a valuable part of my present which asks for my full presence, attention and respect.

And by the way, I still enjoy it. And this made my life so much easier — to my own surprise. I am actually much more efficient, more relaxed, happy and grateful for every bit of that presence in my life that I get to experience.

Self-Care

I’d somehow forgotten how important it is to take care of myself. Inside out. I was too busy. Too busy to remember that myself (I don’t even have my own family yet), and my self-care is the most important thing there is.

I used to buy a lot of self-care and personal development books, programs, register for seminars, webinars, even download the meditation exercises, albums, but then I forgot to make time to take them. To actually do the work.

The same used to apply on my physical self-care front. I used to gather too many self-care body products and cosmetics prior to COVID. All good for me, but I was ‘too busy’ to actually make time to sit with myself in silence, use them and enjoy what they do to my body, mind and soul.

This has changed in these last 3 months.

Not only that I reminded myself about the importance of self-care and started to consciously create more time for it and time for myself, but I am now also enjoying it incredibly!

Where before I’ve seen this as a chore and rather rushed my ‘me time’ for reading, or ‘me time’ for yoga, a healing sound bath, manicure, pedicure, hair and face masks. I am now making sure I do not rush it. Before, my flatmate used to wonder how come I am out of the bathroom already when I just went for a bath, now she’s knocking on the door to check whether I am fine as I am taking surprisingly long. And I love it! I started to truly respect my ‘me time’.

What I was doing wrong before was that I actually thought (on a deeply subconscious level) that I do not have a right to devote so much time to myself.

I seriously thought this. I thought the time devoted to me was -in a way- time wasted. I thought there were more important things to do. Like looking after my business and others — my clients, relationship, family or other household stuff. Not me. That’s why I was rushing that self-care, that’s why I thought I do not have time for it. I know, how ironic this is coming from a Coach, right?

Well, this Covid-19 has given me a slap I needed. And was my wake up call. When I reevaluated basically everything my universe consisted of. I found the cracks, started investigating them and had to fix my universe entirely.

Now I know that self-care and time for it, is not an additional part of our life, it’s an absolutely inevitable part of it. There’s no life without a self-care — essentially. And if we think it’s a luxury, rather than a necessity, then we’re basically saying to ourselves that we don’t deserve to be well taken care of. That we’re not worth it.

And that’s not a healthy mindset. If that’s how you think, I reckon it’s time you reevaluate this yourself.

Self-Development

So, I did invest in developing myself before. I always did. Only that it wasn’t a priority. And what was a priority shouldn’t have been. My priority was to get back to everyone, all requirements, all phone calls, all the people, and tasks.

Not making sure that I am serving my self enough, allowing myself enough freedom — through investing a right time and energy — for my personal development and growth.

Self-development was there, but it was at the end of the list.

And so I had to change the list. Because I reflected on my life and values and reminded myself of the ultimate truth that — unless I am developing myself, investing in myself to grow as a person — none of the other things I am doing make any sense.

I started this process by actually using ‘QualityTime’ app on my phone to monitor where mostly I am spending my valuable time anyway. And I created a new schedule. In my annual planner — an actual journal — where I monitor my daily, weekly and monthly goals. And it works! A schedule where a priority time was — indeed given to my self-development.

My self-development comes through exploring and training my mind, my emotions, and my spirituality. Mastering my skills and turning interests into passion.

I managed to finally make time for a few books I’ve only started to read but didn’t finish before. Such as Freedom Is from Brandon Bays. I started studying psychology with Yales (more precisely, the Science of Wellbeing), made time to draw (I introduced myself to new abstract concepts of spiral drawing — sacred geometrical shapes that serve as art therapy) and paint — that’s my creative channel as well as the activity I want to develop more at. I learned more about astrology — the ancient science I am fascinated by. I learned more about my emotions and how to process them. I learned about what I want and need by giving myself time and space to explore and reflect in the silence of solitude.

And I also removed the limiting beliefs that kept me away from writing for the past 20 years.

And started writing as a passion, regularly. I joined Medium, I started reading more articles daily and I am definitely growing personally as a consequence.

Creativity

I opened up to another kind of creativity. Creativity on another level. Creativity beyond creativity. All-encompassing creativity.

I am creative by nature but before the Covid-19 there was no need for me to innovate, experiment and improvise to such a extend as I am doing it now. And outside the areas where people would naturally get inventive.

I learned to be creative outside my comfort zone for creativity. Before, I didn’t know something like that existed.

I was creative with my arts — drawing, painting, henna arts, and in the kitchen before, but I wasn’t a creative writer and not creative enough with my business — although it even has ‘creative’ in its name. And I wasn’t creative in the way that I live. I wasn’t even creating enough! Not as much as I was consuming.

I wasn’t, in fact, that creative with my arts, cooking or baking. There was no need to innovate. I always had everything that I needed at my disposal.

The abundance of all things was taking pieces of my creativity away without me knowing.

Once that abundance was gone, the creativity knocked on my door. As if it always wanted to be in, but it wasn’t invited before. It kicked in suddenly and naturally as there was no other conventional way. And I started to value that.

As a few examples, earlier to the lockdown, I decided that I won’t be doing that much shopping for personal items such as clothes, accessories, personal care and cosmetics anymore. It has risen as a safety measure first (as I was avoiding to go out that often), but then it turned into a sustainable living choice. So, I reviewed my wardrobe and found some great pieces of clothing that were either great fabrics, colours, patterns or styles, only that it had to be somehow repaired, mended, shortened or resewed.

I managed to renew my wardrobe completely just by using my creativity and changing the design, shape or style of my favourite items.

The same way, I looked at my cosmetics, personal care items, household cleaning products etc. Before, we (as a household) used to shop for at least 5 to 6 different kinds of cleaning products. Now, we have one. Organic, homemade cleaning liquid — out of vinegar, baking soda and some essential oils. My dry shampoo is made out of rice flour and cocoa — and oh, I do love it! My hair mask is either a fruity banana and honey or a camomile tea, the latter also lightens the hair! I run out of my face cream and found an even better alternative in my existing Garnier lotion with aloe vera, that’s perfect for my skin and seem to work even better as a face solution! I could go on with this, but the point is — there’s a way, a better and even more creative way.

And oh, I am now creating simple and unique recipes as I learned to improvise with the ingredients and replace the missing ones with even better alternatives, the same I did with baking. I got more creative with my business as well as that’s what it actually needed. And I got creative with my writing. Which I’ve not done for the past tens of years!

I got creative with life as I started to see it as a creative expression also.

Creativity comes in so many different forms, you can have a simple espresso, but can keep it in a beautiful cup and decorate the edge with basil or orange peel while drinking it on a terrace or a garden as you start your day while enjoying the peace and the bird songs.

This is what I do now, I invite as much creativity in my life as I can. Simply because it’s good for me and it makes me happy.

Mindfulness

Even mindfulness has layers. Just like knowledge, growth and evolution does.

All the areas and experiences I mentioned before helped me to become more mindful — about the way that I live (and want to live), value different areas of my life, understand and spend my time, the way I organize it, how I buy and use things, dress, eat, cook, create and look after myself.

And it was this Covid-19 lockdown that made me question every since one of them — reflect upon them and reevaluate the way I operate as a human. As a consequence, my life has been enriched — inside out.

Even that I always aspired to be as mindful as possible, and tried to live mindfully, I learned there is more to mindfulness that I previously understood.

I was aware that how I think influences the way that I feel and what I think and feel impacts what actions I take. As well as that what I feed myself with — methaphorically (my thoughts, feelings) and literally speaking — the food that I consume or the exercise that I give my body has a direct impact on how I look and how I feel.

But mindfulness goes beyond this. I didn’t know by experience before just how much an impact I have on my environment and how much impact it has on me. I wasn’t kept in the cell of my own to get so familiar with myself — my thoughts, emotions and body feelings before.

I wasn’t so clear about what really serves me and what all of my being needs as a priority — not a luxury or nice to have.

Until a lot of things which I thought were a part of me were suddenly gone, only for me to discover that I don’t really miss them and don’t suffer. And at the same time — that all the most important remained.

I lost part of my business income, my financial security, my social life, my little luxuries of materiality, but I haven’t lost myself. On the contrary, I found myself. The fact I could sit in silence with myself, connect with my dear family and friends, create, go out to nature, be present and breath freely has proven to be the most important for me. I talk more about this whole experience here.

Now, there’s clarity about who I am, where I am, what I need, my values, my priorities, my interests, passion, life direction, even more clarity about my purpose — which I thought I was living already!

So yeah, Covid-19 time summarizes in one word for me — a transformation. A full being transformation, mind, body and soul transformation.

A transformation which made me more present, more loving, more mindful, more creative, more self-valuing and even more open-minded — aspiring to continue learning and growing as a person.

So that’s my story. And although all this Covid-19, plus the lockdowns felt terrible, tragic and difficult at the beginning for everyone, as you see, with a bit of awareness and an open mind, there’s another side of it as well.

Here’s what I do when I am not contemplating life or writing. Feel free to connect with me for a personal conversation here or at [email protected]

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