Is it your significant other? Or your kid(s)? Or your mother or father? Have you always put other people before yourself?
We are facing yet another transition in our lives due to a worldwide pandemic. Will the world be different after? Or will it just be more clear the true nature of reality? That is up to each of us. We can choose to go back to our lives of before, under the illusion of control or we can choose to see things as they are. To practice radical acceptance. It will be up to each of us individually, with consequences that reach to all corners of the Earth.
We are no longer moving along on our morning commutes, packed into aluminum tubes on tracts of iron to produce in a cocoon of concrete and steel for an invisible hand that we call an economy. We have all been stuffed so close to each other but we were still so far. Yet now, in the age of social distancing we are starved for contact. We have been forced inside, to change our mindset from aggressively individual to collectivist in order to keep others safe. It has taken being physically separated from one another to see how important it is to care for the weakest among us. Yet that doesn’t mean we stop putting ourselves first. We need to in order to do the best we can for the collective good.
Being our own #1 advocate is not selfish, in fact it is quite the opposite. Wanna be the best parent you can? The best sibling or spouse? Employer or employee? Making yourself the most important person in your life assures that you can be the best for everyone else.
Be your biggest fan. Be your best friend. Speak to yourself with respect and admiration. For only then can we truly do our best to help others. After all it’s times like these, when isolation is forced upon us, when we learn what it’s like to be with ourselves. We might as well learn to appreciate the company.
