I spent 10 days with COVID-19: What did I end up learning?
When I first started this blog, I mentioned in my first post that this blog shall act like a journal for my future self. On one hand, I seek to learn the lessons of my past experiences, and furthermore seek growth as a person. On the other hand, I write with an optimistic and encouraging tone as I discuss my thoughts. I do this while staying raw and real to my message. In other words, all my blog posts are based on my actual mindset.
This is how I see life. This is how I approach life, and this is hence the way I write about my experiences in life.
With that being said, my optimism was put to the test 10 days ago, as I tested positive for COVID-19. I am not exaggerating when I say that I didn’t expect it nor was ready for it.
Well…Here we are! A fever, a sore throat…you probably know the drill by now! (If you don’t, here’s a link from WHO).
It’s quite surprising what occurs to the mind being confined in a bedroom for 10 days straight…Hence, I’m going to give you some of the thoughts and lessons I got spending quarantine.
Lesson 1: Life forces you sometimes.
The first cruel reality of quarantine, as you can tell by now, is the isolation you go through. You’re sitting usually in the same — perhaps with limited space — room, and in best case scenarios, you get the whole apartment if you’re living alone. The limited space, the isolation and the boredom adding to the sickness puts your mood at an all-time-low. It almost feels as if life has thrown you in jail as time-out. Now at a first glance, this may not seem like a big deal in the beginning, but as time goes on, it starts getting dull and you eventually get sucked into hopelessness as you run out of ideas to spend time.
I should also mention that this has nothing to do whether your Extraverted or Introverted (looking at you MBTI folks). Sure…if you’re introverted it seems as if nothing has changed for you. However, you’re missing something! That option of you getting out of the room to get some social energy or talk to the people you live with, that’s taken from you. You have no choice but to be alone, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t think anyone likes to have their choices taken away, even if they’re not going to utilize them all.
This brings me, to the first hard lesson I learned: Life forces you in a corner sometimes, you can do nothing about it!
I understand if this feels dark, but it is the truth…
I’ve discussed in some of my previous posts about battling emptiness and getting your hopes up and setting mottos. However, sometimes none of those attempts work, and the only option you’re left with is to…well…accept your fate!
You might give yourself some solace to make it better. In my case, the solace was: “Everything happens for a reason”.
Now before you rage quit this post, I’ll answer the question you probably had in mind: What’s the reason in this case?
Great question…mediocre true answer: It’s a mystery. (No I am not referencing Oogway). I remember watching Tenet, the movie by director Christopher Nolan and the protagonist had an amazing sentence when talking to people in the present:
“Ignorance is our ammunition”
You won’t always know the reason for what happens to you, to what life forces you onto. Yet, that’s probably a good thing! You don’t know what kind of damage God protected you from, what kind of disaster He shielded you from. Maybe that isolation was that self-reflection time you always needed, or maybe that was some good old humbling test to better shape your self and character.
I gave an example in my last post, about how life happens to you, and you’re like the constant c in a math integration. Frankly, maybe you needed to become c so you could actually see what you’ve been missing and you never knew.
Lesson 2: Remember the value of what you have.
The period I spent in quarantine was a real awakening call to me. Furthermore, it has allowed me to recall and appreciate what I had. It was a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings I sometimes took for granted.
Starting — obviously — with my health, my sore throat and the out-of-body feeling I was getting made me realize how valuable is my health. It made me realize how looking after yourself is a priority and a right to yourself not a privilege.
Moving on, quarantine also made me realize the value of immersing the self in nature’s subtle wonders.
Let me tell you a story.
I remember looking out my window and seeing the beautifully colored sky along with the scattered clouds. It was a beautiful painting of the outside world, and I remember shedding a tear or two.
The Point is that I wanted to feel this so bad. However, while I had — in the past with good health — the chance to go out and walk, feel the breeze in my face, maybe self-reflect, I stayed instead at home scrolling on social media indefinitely.
The world was out there, and I looked the other way.
Finally, I lost for 10 days a gift I never expected…Priceless real-world interaction.
I don’t know about you, but I sincerely wanted to see someone. Not through my screen, but with my eyes. I wanted to see them and feast my eyes with their presence.
I remember finishing quarantine, and running to hug my Mom after confirming a negative test. We started talking…
After telling me about how much she missed me, she started discussing other stuff. I can’t exactly remember what she spoke about, but I do remember wanting her to not stop talking, so I can hear her voice, look at her hand gestures explaining whatever. The point is…It felt Good! It felt Priceless and I would never trade it for the world!
Lesson 3: Nothing should come above your wellbeing.
This lesson was the hardest lesson for me to digest, but it is the most significant and sensitive one, and I believe you should hold it close to your heart.
10 days of staring at the wall, coughing and sneezing and aching from the throat. 10 days of feeling low and broken. 10 days of reflecting and thinking about the outside world. I eventually concluded:
Nothing should come above your physical and mental wellbeing ever!
The void you try to escape, the idea you’re working on, your next job, and everything else you’re charging to launch to…All of that is irrelevant and unnecessary if your wellbeing gets affected.
This does not mean in any way that you shouldn’t go after what you seek and please. It means simply that you should do a fact check before you go on any new adventure. You should probably do a wellbeing check by asking yourself:
- Am I working out lately? — cause Sports help reduce stress and develop your physique.
- Am I eating well and in a healthy manner? — cause you are what you eat, and looking after the quality and quantity of your food is a no-brainer.
- Am I feeling well? — If not, speak out your thoughts or write them down. Clear your head, be honest and forgive yourself.
I know this feels like a psychology quest. But it’s the most feasible advice I could give you spending 10 days with myself and my thoughts.
In other words, If you’re working on your next big thing, but you’re not eating well and you’re all over the place, you should reassess your priorities. Go after whatever you want, but always remember to check up on yourself, so you don’t collapse.
Hence, with a regularly checked up wellbeing, you propel yourself back to work, stronger, wiser and more disciplined. Because as the title says: Nothing should come above your wellbeing!
What happens now?
Ok…So I left quarantine now. I took off my mask and closed my thermometer.
In all honesty, COVID took a toll on me in many ways.
Adding to that, my quarantine taught me many valuable lessons and I happened to briefly share with you some of them in this post.
To sum things up, I started this post talking about how COVID tested my optimism. How it challenged my mindset and beliefs. 10 days and some later, I can tell you that while I felt down during this period, I never felt more excited about what is coming.
Of course, I don’t know what the future holds, but somehow it feels good!
Believe it or not, COVID was the perfect down hill I needed to boost myself onto the next phase. It made me feel more humble, more thankful to the God-given assets we all have (our health, our bodies, our beloved ones and everything else we’ve been blessed with…)
Most importantly, it taught me to always appreciate every second, and to live it to the fullest.
Be in the here and now! You’ll be surprised how much we all need that. 😊
All I can tell the world for now is… I’m back! Let’s try this again, shall we? 😎
