It moved fast and hit hard! The ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic which started towards the end of 2019 and spread across the world within the space of a few months, has infected more than a million people worldwide,overwhelmed the health infrastructure and sent economies on a downward spiral. It spread so fast that governments had little time to prepare for it and were forced to take drastic measures- like imposing lock downs- to contain its spread. Few people must have ever thought, in their wildest dreams, that they would have to face a tragedy which would curb their freedom of movement and social interactions and force them to confine themselves in their homes. Offices that used to be buzzing with activity have been forced to shut their doors and ask employees to work from home, forcing the employees to turn parts of their sanctuaries of peace into war rooms. The confinement is painful for many, as they have been deprived of the environment which, though stressful, was familiar as a “work place”, providing them with the tools and the atmosphere to work. Shifting of workplace to homes has also led to blurring the lines between professional and personal space, depriving them of the sole refuge from stresses of the work.
The rampaging pandemic, however, despite taking a tragic human toll, has had positive impacts on the environment, as evidenced by news reports from around the world. Venetian canals have clearer waters, Carbon emissions have gone down, particulate matter in cities has reduced, water in the rivers is cleaner than it has been in decades, animals are seen wandering on city streets which gobbled up their homeland and citizens , in many cities,are enjoying views which had earlier been obscured by smog. It seems that while humans are falling sick or are facing the danger of falling sick, the environment is healing itself. All the damage caused by anthropocentric activities is getting repaired by the reduction of human activity. This crises, thus, seems to be different from other crises, like wars, where humans and the environment suffered equally, and this time the environment is spared from having to bear the brunt of human follies.
Despite the widespread negative effects, the situation created by the pandemic presents an unparalleled opportunity for us, humans, to introspect on our personal and professional lives and responsibility to the environment. We have been forced us to step off the treadmill and hit the pause button, which had so far been invisible to us, and we need to use the time to introspect so that we can cleanse ourselves of toxic thoughts, habits and attitudes and find ways to rid our environment of toxic substances.
In order to remove the toxicity within us we need to closely look at the issue of stress which, for many people, is an ever present problem, forcing them to spend most of their time trying to deal with it or escape it. Individuals tend to blame stress on external factors like toxicity of the office environment, financial pressures and relationship problems. However, wisdom passed down to us through the ages says that stress is not caused by events or situations but by our reaction to them. Stress is thus a result of our reaction to external events and our inability to deal with them rather than being a direct result to these events, and can be lessened by controlling our reaction to the events. The time and space available to us now can help us to reflect our reactions to situations which have led to our being stressed out in the past and think of alternatives. We can also reflect on our relationships, professional and personal,and find ways to repair damage where damage has been done, drop habits which have been barriers to our developing healthy relationships and reinforce those that have helped us build them. Careful and objective introspection would be required to be able to draw lessons for ourselves, and reduce the toxicity ,within and around us, which has killed the joys of living in the community.
In addition to thinking introspectively about ourselves and our lives, we also need to think about reducing the negative impact that we have had on the environment. We can think of ways to live more sustainable lives, by tracking impact of activities on environment and taking strong action to curb activities that have an environmental impact. We have been avoiding such actions fearing its impact on the economy, but environmental damage caused by delay in action has taken a toll on our health, which has been further impacted by the current pandemic. The confinement forced us to reduce consumption and restrict mobility, making us realize how little we actually need to survive and how, through our excesses, we had been burdening the planet. Such elements of a simple no frills lifestyle can be extended to the period beyond the current crisis, helping us to contribute to sustainability.
The pandemic could be a huge opportunity to pause and reflect and we need to make the best possible use of it to emerge stronger.
