It is high-time we face the truth – life before COVID-19, although seemingly normal, was not an ideal life scenario. In fact, it would be safe to say that we really don’t understand the meaning of an ideal life. But going by popular as well as expert opinion, an ideal life is one where the individual is mindful of his surroundings and emotions in the present moment. However, owing to the fast-paced life and the never-ending rat race which we were all guilty of being stuck in, we really had lost the essence of mindfulness in daily living. Mindfulness, by definition, means “a mental state achieved by focusing one's awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one's feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations.” We talk about taking in a moment to let reality sink in, but when was the last time we really stopped to smell the roses?
2020 has been the beginning of the new ‘normal’. Owing to the pandemic, the world has been forced to stay indoors and what was considered normal earlier has been brought to an abrupt halt. As COVID-19 pandemic continues to keep the world on an indefinite pause, IGCSE schools in Pune and across the country are striving to continue the academic year with more focus on mental health and practising mindfulness, now more than ever. Teachers of CP Goenka International School, one of the best IGCSE board schools in Mumbai have taken up the initiative to communicate with its students and help create awareness about the importance of being mindful in the current situation.
IGCSE board schools in Mumbai understand that it is easy for students to be bogged down and feel overwhelmed with the changes that are occurring not just around us but across the globe. There is an unmissable shift in global dynamics in terms of politics, economic and social landscape, and no one in the current or upcoming generation has ever seen anything like this. In times like this, students may lose sight of their goals, feel lost and hopeless about their own futures as well as the world around them.
1. Meditation – one of the most popular techniques to compose and calm our racing minds is to meditate. Guided meditation and unguided meditation are both effective in bringing peace and serenity to one’s mind.
2. Channelizing energies into mind nourishing activities – instead of binge-watching mindless shows or lazing in bed, scrolling on social media, students must engage themselves in activities that nourish their mind. Some of these include gardening, cooking, painting, craft, listening to or creating music, etc.
3. Practising mental distancing – While maintaining social distancing, it is also important to disconnect mentally from the surrounding. It is only when you step out of the situation and see it from a third-person perspective that you can really grasp the reality of the situation the way it is and not the way it is being perceived. Refraining from social media and restricting the quantum of virtual socializing and instead using this time to reflect and understand one’s own thoughts and emotions is a good start to being mindful.
At a time like the current lockdown, the best one can do is live wholly and solely in the present moment, in present day and present time. The future has never been as unfamiliar or unknown as it seems right now. So, the only way to prepare for it is by strengthening our mental threshold and learning t navigate our thoughts and emotions which will be an indispensable tool to cope with what lays ahead. The situation may be out of our hands, but it is important to focus on what we can do instead of focusing on what we can’t. To sum it up, words of Viktor Frankl, a concentration camp survivor seems far too relevant for us today – “When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”