Coronavirus has brought us back to ourselves
HALT
There you are.
Very rapidly and surprisingly, we in Kenya have found ourselves deeply engaged in a global event - one that has made us stop in our tracks! We heard about Wuhan, a city that many did not know. We were told that it is the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak. Being thousands of miles away, we had a false sense of comfort that here we were safe. Soon the fairy tale being told of the far away land took a turn. We shockingly discovered that this virus knows no boundaries, in fact this virus was only a flight away. The flights landed as did the virus. Today our beautiful country has sunk deep in a quagmire of confusion, speculation and fear. Why? Because coronavirus poses an existential threat to us as a species.
For those who know and work with me, they can attest to the fact that I believe that our world reflects what we are – the operative word being WHAT, not who, we are. Our responses, ranging from panic, confusion, and a lot of uncertainty, leave room for false claims. Amid the panic and anxiety, increasing travel ban disruptions, work-from-home mandates, supply chain disruptions, and deferral of non-strategic investments, there are some people who have been able to remain cool, calm and collected. I take my hat off to them…however, I digress. The point that I am making is that whatever fears we may be experiencing in this moment, such as running out of food or toilet paper for that matter, is a reflection of a fear that we always have. In this case it may be the fear of not having enough: The scarcity mentality. The fear of losing our loved ones to Coronavirus may be a reflection of our fear of being abandoned. The fear of being confined may reflect one’s fear of not being seen and heard because they are not good enough, this list could go on. The bottom line is that this pandemic is magnifying our responses to life. This, I would argue, is an opportunity to see and heal our core fears – to heal our shadow self.
It is said that every cloud has a silver lining. So let’s spend a moment exploring what that silver lining might be in these circumstances. For a start we are having to meet and engage with ourselves after a long time. Our normal structures, many of which have allowed us to disengage from ourselves, our households, our emotions, and our spirituality have broken down. In a way, we had mastered distancing ourselves from these issues, relying heavily on the collective to escape through group thinking, group irresponsibility and no personal accountability. We have been distancing ourselves and were alright with that until governments world over instructed us to distance ourselves socially. In that moment we were forced to collapse and stop relying on our survival mechanisms.
Word out there is that birds can be heard again in Wuhan, and their sky is blue, grey and clear. On the streets of Assisi, Italy people are singing to each other. Hotels in the west of Ireland are delivering free meals to those that are housebound. All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting. People are acknowledging that we do not have as much control as we thought we had. In all of this we have been forced to find ourselves, our sense of right and wrong, our children, and our elders.
Yes there we are!