By Sebastian, 18, Farnham, UK
Covid-19 has undoubtedly had detrimental effects on all aspects of life ranging from personal matters such as relationships and health; to global matters in both the economic and financial world. Covid-19 will irrefutably be remembered for many decades as it has made its mark in history as both a life-taking and life-changing global pandemic with a huge magnitude of negative repercussions.
However, this we already know.
The one thing that has been made clear to me, above everything else, in these traumatic times of distress and uncertainty is the importance of perspectives. Yes, social life’s have been put on hold, the economy has gone into a recession and the uncertainty of the future is great; but why focus on this; the facts we already know? Instead, I believe we should focus on the opportunities that arise from this situation; regardless of how small they are.
Waking up in the morning and thinking ‘here we go, another day in lockdown’ will only add to your lack of happiness and increasingly unstable mindset. Instead, we should wake up thinking ‘what can I do to make the most of my day?’. The phrase ‘to make the best out of a bad situation’ comes to mind. I believe we shouldn’t focus on what is out of our control; i.e. the past, but we should embrace this situation by focusing on what is in our control; the future.
Would I rather not be in lockdown? To see my friends? and continue to make progress in my life?... of course, but we are where we are, and you can either embrace each day looking for positives, or dwell on the negatives and do nothing.
Each day I have had time to both self-reflect and calm my mind which I have practiced through activities such as meditation. I have understood the importance of maintaining routine, in order to have both a good mental mindset and physical state. By exercising at least an hour every day, I have not only continued to keep both mental and physically healthy, but I have seen the positives of all this free time, which has led me to increase these active exercises which I was not doing before.
Furthermore, I have had time to think and envision future goals of where I want to be at certain stages within the next couple years, which has allowed me to see more clearly my priorities in order to achieve these targets.
All in all, everyone is in the same situation, and this we can’t change, and at the end of it all looking back, I’d rather see myself as someone who took advantage of this bad situation by learning, growing and preparing myself, than someone who allowed this situation to limit them, only adding to the negative impacts this time has brought about.