Masking the Speech: What I learned from Covid-19?
The year 2020, marking the onset of Coronavirus, will be remembered for decades to come. It left significant effects on health, human psychology, and social behavior, changing the way human beings live.
Several nations announced a complete lockdown, instructing people to stay at home. Workplaces adopted a work-from-home approach, schools followed an online study program, movie theatres, shopping malls, and public places were shut down, and international flights came to a halt.
Amidst this changing environment, many suffered depression, anxiety, fear, irritability, anger, and excessive feelings of stress. The pandemic also brought in heated discussions around whether China is responsible for the spread of the virus or human activities are to blame.
The entire year went in efforts to understand the intricacies of the virus and the measures to combat the same. The healthcare sector remained on its toes to help patients recover. Besides, the economy witnessed a decline, with governments and companies actively making attempts to overcome the economic and financial challenges.
Ten months later, in the New Year 2021, we have a vaccine. What started as a disease/virus affecting a few thousand has taken the lives of close to 2 million people. But what helped some of us survive and stay ‘negative’ till now? — Masks, sanitizers, and hand and face hygiene.
If we keep our mouths covered and wash our hands frequently, we are unlikely to contract the virus. Now, here’s my learning from the virus and the new ‘normal’:
In today’s fast-paced and competitive life, we spoke ill, we fought, we argued, we listened only to reply, we forgot to respect the elderly, we forgot to use words like ‘Thank You’ and ‘Sorry’. We judged with our opinions readily available — “Look at how fat he is”, “What is she wearing?”, “Are they even together anymore?”, “I don’t think he earns that much”, etc.
We could spend hours at a party commenting on every person around us without realizing or accepting that each one is fighting a battle of their own. We replaced the “How was your day today” with “Why are you late?”, not understanding that the corporate sector has greatly changed with demanding jobs. We made efforts to pinpoint the wrong in others.
If that wasn’t enough, we used our hands to type comments on social media, initiate trolls, give out bribes, forge signatures, manipulate documents, and WHAT NOT! We misused the whole idea of Freedom of Speech.
The virus entered with a strong mission to end our negativities. It masked our mouths, restricted our conversations with one another, and limited how many we could meet. It made us repeatedly wash our hands (which, of course, can’t wash away our bad deeds) but reminded us of the importance of keeping our hands clean. It gave us time to introspect, and for some, to spend time with only the near and dear ones — parents, spouses, siblings. It refrained us from stepping outside, which meant no more gossiping, bitching, judging.
As most of us now gear up to get our vaccine shot, let’s take a minute to understand how we need to watch our thoughts, words, and actions. Let’s pledge to embrace positivity, appreciation, encouragement, and hope to spread love, compassion, wisdom, care, and support.
In the next few stories, I’ll share how I’ve changed as a person in - dealing with criticism, avoiding judgment, learning the art of appreciation, replacing negative statements with neutral statements, and enjoying absolute happiness.