Quarantine
How many of you have experienced a quarantine? How many of you have experienced a lockdown before Coronavirus?
See, probably no one has experienced a quarantine or experienced a lockdown before. However, some sources say that a generation before us did indeed experience a pandemic 100 years ago. To our surprise, right now we are experiencing it as well, like them.
Let's start by rewinding the tape. December 31, 2019 was such an exciting day for everybody on planet Earth. I cannot lie about it because I was right there in NYC, the capital of the world, on New Year’s Eve. We were all excited, celebrating and waiting for the countdown to welcome a new decade.
It would be for all of us the beginning of the most historic and futuristic decade. There is no doubt that 2020 had an impact on our lifestyle, financial, social, psychological, and emotional experiences a few months later. Unexpectedly a global pandemic marked the present and the future of what we have known as a comfortable, healthy, secure, typical or normal life. The entire planet shut down. A worldwide epidemic came to teach us that, after all, it is not such an elegant, comfortable, safe, or healthy life, because there is much more to change required during a crisis needed in order to evolve towards a better quality of life.
This isolation is all we know and experience nowadays. That is our current and new lifestyle. We barely go for a walk; we hardly go out of the house; we now wear masks and surgical gloves; we see fear and disorientation from our window; we think about how God forbid the world can get worse next month. Lately, time is frozen in our watches. Days go by, and we don't know what day it is on the calendar, TV is not a hobby, and telecommuting is an endless daily routine. Breath is the most precious thing we have. It would be better if we left our phone or keys in our house, but not the mask and gloves. Now the internet is our best ally. Quarantine, isolation, lockdown. WOW, who would even imagine experiencing it in a modern world huh?
The truth is that it does not longer matter if we live in a modern world or not, because a virus can make us go back to the origin of mankind: simplicity. Yes, simplicity. The simplicity of being equal, honest, and vulnerable. An illness that does not see social classes, extravagance, luxury, or complexity but the fragility of human beings. Do you see it? Such simplicity makes us feel free, even in isolation. I know, communicators, you may wonder, why on earth do you think this way if we are all locked down and the whole world is shut down, so are we? But see, we may feel anxious, afraid, bored, worried, etc. However, we are unconsciously freeing ourselves from our own complexity, demons, frustrations, expectations, worthless feelings of life during this isolation.
We are now in the simplicity of being at home with our true selves in sweatpants and a dress-shirt every day. We are now forced to experience everything from the interior and not the exterior surface. We are forced to reevaluate everything from the core, the root of us, our vulnerability. There are no filters, no societal prejudice, no facades, nor pressured lifestyles pushing us to shape our behavior, our personality. It's just us at home in the middle of a pandemic living the simple truth of ourselves day by day. It’s as simple as the word by itself. Having the clarity to see simplicity in our life is the most valuable and beneficial treasure, that's what quarantine has been making us realize. Experiencing the simplification of life by itself, it requires us to focus on the truly important and necessary things, and ignore or avoid vain distractions. Think about it for one moment. Right now all we have is our true self, our true life, and all of the simple things that exist within it.
I know we are experiencing challenging times and that everything seems to be upside-down, but stop worrying about what you are missing on the outside and tell me: have you not been using this crisis to your advantage, to learn, discover, nurture yourself, and furthermore to experience the simplicity of life? Do you believe the discovery of simplicity will make you go back to the world with a real purpose in life?