COVID Crisis Post 47: Perspective.
This is my favorite quote ever:
“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” - Henry David Thoreau
A bit of philosophy for today because mentally, I need a recalibration.
My perspective on life has served me well for many years. It is the main reason I am generally a very happy person and allows me to be level-headed for the most part.
We all train our minds to think about things in a certain way, and this process becomes a cycle and further enforces our beliefs. You may not be able to change your reality. But you can change how you choose to view and, therefore, approach that reality.
So I choose to use selflessness and abundance as the primary driving forces to shape my perspective.
I may have lost my dad, but my dad found peace in death.
My relationships may have ended, but it was because we were not right for one another, not because something was wrong with me. And my journey to find my perfectly imperfect partner has just not come to an end yet.
It may have been scary to deal with a heart rate of 190 while being in the middle of nowhere while on the Bolivian Salt Flats, but the scare motivated me to take it more seriously than I had been and served as motivation to have my cardiac ablation.
I may be physically limited for 3+ months once I have my left shoulder surgery, but instead of focusing on my limitations, I am looking forward to the opportunities for growth during the same time period.
Just some real life examples of how selflessness and abundance has shaped my mindset. And I share this mindset with others in hopes it helps shift their perspective in moments of turmoil.
But unfortunately, there are so many people who allow selfishness and scarcity to shape their view of the world instead. And that view must be voluntarily changed by an individual. And it takes a LOT of time to change since those views are so deeply ingrained in many.
During this pandemic, it has become even more essential to have perspective that centers around selflessness and abundance as a way to stay level during this crisis.
I may miss my mom and sister like crazy, but I am prepared to not see them for a while because their well-being is the thing that matters to me the most.
I am not earning as much money, but at least I still have a job.
I may not want to wear a mask or socially distance, but I know I could be saving a life. Including my own.
I may be risking my life by working in a hospital, but I am likely saving many more.
But since selfishness and scarcity are so deeply rooted in so many people, this pandemic and its subsequent shutdown has further cemented this mindset. And to be honest, I have even found myself struggling with the remnants of selfishness and scarcity which remain (spoiler: they never fully go away).
And this mindset again surfaced today. I have found myself getting frustrated, angry, and exasperated with so many people regarding their perspective of the pandemic. My feelings come from a place of love, but the way I have communicated these feelings have not always been effective, nor always in ways I am proud of.
I so BADLY want to avoid the situation where someone needs to lose a loved one to finally understand COVID-19 is a big deal. But I also do not claim to know the degree of hardship people are enduring during this pandemic. I do know lots of jobs have been lost. Children are suffering from loss of education and the protection school provides for many. And there are many more examples. There is suffering all around, that much is certain.
And ultimately, I can only control my own ABCs: actions, beliefs, and choices. The same goes for everyone else and their ABCs.
So a request to all, and this serves also as a reminder to myself:
Be kind to others. Be kind to yourself. Be grateful for all the things you DO have. Be understanding. Be patient. Stay healthy, both physically AND mentally. Reframe every situation from a place of selflessness. Reframe every situation from a place of abundance.
And for life in general, but most importantly during this pandemic, the best offense is not to yell and scream and hurl insults at others, but to - and this is more important than ever - EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE.
If you choose to do the above and adopt this mindset, I have high hopes you will influence someone, somewhere, to make a choice to alter their ABCs. And possibly save a life in the process.
This is the entire purpose of my daily posts. If I save even one life because my actions mirror my beliefs and choices, I can live with that.
Because the only person's opinion of me I can control is my own.