How to Adopt Mindfulness & Adapt To The 2020 Pandemic Aftermath

By Ritika Shukla, a Life’s Rails Blog Contributer

Change is constant. 

As stated numerous times, change is the only constant we know and the paradox is that we are never truly prepared for it. Fall usually signifies the time of the year where many leave their homes to kick start their journey’s as an independent college freshman. Yet this year, the this season looks a lot different and comes with a whole set of new changes. 

For some, the journey begins online from the comfort of their homes, and for others the choice is to sit this one out and chart a secondary plan. Though the plans might look different for both the groups, the anxiety which these changes bring, is a constant for most. 

*Disclaimer – If you are here to get a quick 5 ways remedy to manage this anxiety, then I am afraid this article is not for you. This article is for anyone going through the scenario mentioned above, who is trying to make the best of this situation and most importantly, tackling inherited anxiety.

So here is the raw documentation of the experience I had while also tackling with these changes (Yes, I am one of the people from latter group and Yes, I am tackling it and not championing it by any means).**

Storytime

30^th April 2020 was the date when I booked my tickets to embark on a wonderful adventure (grad school across the globe). But just like for many of us, those plans hit pause when COVID-19 spread. 

“Breathe…”, I told myself, 

“It will soon be over”, I thought every day. Now here I am on 9^th September, 2020 writing this article and still no sign of a vaccine… 

The last 5 months were tough and the anxiety was real. You can call it a crisis of sorts because it was not only the uncertainty of the future… It was also efforts of the past that were paused, financial commitments and family pressures, all combined into one complex mess.

So, I had 2 choices in front of me.

1. Embrace this reality.

2. Or Stubbornly resist. 

Embracing it was the choice I made (since I read a lot of 5-ways-to articles), but it was the execution that was tough! 

Let’s start with how I struggled and you might also have

• Bringing Plans into action: Every book/article I read said replace expectations with plans – hence I planned.  A daily plan, a weekly goal etc. of how I will spend these extra months in hand. But the thing with change is that it occurs constantly, and hence my plans sometimes suffered… And so did my consistency.  

• Juggling the possibilities: Since I knew the quote of ‘change is constant’, I had supplementary plans. 1. Summer term did not happen – no worries. Let’s do an internship. 2. What if the internship does not happen? Go for online courses instead.

Simple plans right? Well sure, but for me this was my life and my time that I felt I was now juggling. And with failure of each new possibility I tried to plan, down also went my confidence. 

• Balancing emotions: This was maybe the toughest to achieve; no matter how bullet-proof my plans were… And with one spec of laziness or negativity added to the equation – I witnessed poor execution on my behalf. 

However, the picture was not all that gloomy. I found the practice of mindfulness as a useful tool to make sense of the chaos around me. 

In no way do I endorse mindfulness as the ultimate solution, but I can surely say it is a powerful tool to have in your arsenal, along with other expert method recommendations of self-care. Especially when the world around you is changing so quickly. 

What did I do next & what were my results?

I started practicing meditation, a usual form of practicing mindfulness, as a part of 21 days exercise with a couple of friends, and I devoted 15-20 min per day to it mostly in the morning.  I felt the calmness and continued with it alone for another 10 days and then another 10 days and so on… 

In between somewhere, I realized this calmness was the missing piece that was helping me reduce my ‘buts & ifs’. 

I am bothered less about what everyone else is doing and focused more on what’s good for me now. And I also believe that it has helped me decide my next course of action without panic… That I will be taking an additional term off, after a summer off, and that I am at peace with this decision. 

In all honesty, there is no way of knowing whether I took the right decision or not. But I am okay with the reality of it and I believe that keeping mindful has helped me to adapt to all these sudden changes a lot better than if I hadn’t found the practices of mindfulness.

Some final words from me to you

To all my fellow students who are going through similar changes I would say 

‘Breath….’ 

…and, as one of my professors told me once: keep your eyes open, remain flexible and be ready to move when opportunities present themselves. 

Maximize the serendipity!