Hey reader,

What happens when it rains in the mountains? The rainwater makes its own path to form tiny streams through mountains and unite to form a bigger stream and keeps flowing, which we call a river. The river also doesn’t stop… It flows through its path, through its journey. Many say, that a river’s journey starts from the mountains and ends at oceans. I believe the journey doesn’t end but transforms its nature from the flowing stream of river to the streaming waves and tides of oceans, but it never ends. So are our thoughts and this decoding. We may say that we reached far but it’s really tough to say that the journey is completed (as it never ends and so is this blog).

Hello friend, I said in my last post that this blog would end there, but it couldn’t last, even if I say so.

New things may start but old habits die hard!

Well, we all are living in that era, which will always be talked about, especially this time. This is the time about which we all will be telling stories to maybe our children and grandchildren. How it was when the world was at a standstill when the world united following techniques like social distancing to fight a pandemic, when nature started to fix longtime damages made by humans, how the birds restarted chirping in the mornings when the humans came to know how animals feel like when caged in the zoo, and all the non-human species started to believe that this earth belongs to them too! We all will have stories, and I hope everyone reading this blog, stay safe and healthy with their family and an exciting and amazing story with a happy ending for their future generations.

Well, these times are different, we all know it, understand it, and listen to it every now and then. Getting anxious is normal in these times, but taking that anxiety way too hard on ourselves is not normal. The world will heal, the vaccine will come and normals days will come, not soon but someday. We need to hang tight, and while we do it.. We need to do a few things, which I come to know recently from a Neuro-Psychiatry expert session from the office that can be considered as a good practice:

• Exercise: When the lockdown days started, my family started practicing yoga every morning which we never use to do in normal days. As per the Neuro Psychology expert, we should do rigorous exercise every day for 30 minutes at least. This can be yoga asanas as well, considering what suits your body type.
• Meditate: As per the expert, one should meditate at least 5 to 10 minutes every day. This is not the deep meditation, but just concentrating on your breath. The inhale and exhale of airflow from your body is all you have to notice. (East right, then try out)
• Hobby: Many people are working in the new normal way, that we call WORK FROM HOME, but what after work hours. Netflix and chill? Or social networking sites? God bless your eyes! The last thing world would want after a pandemic is the majority of the population suffering from unhealthy eyes. What the expert suggests is, reduce your screen time. Well the work we can not avoid but rest we can.. 3 hours watching screen after work, can be reduced to 30 mins or 1 hour? Isn’t it? And how about using that time to refresh your long lost hobby. Maybe after the pandemic, you get a life where you could shout out to the world with your new hobby. I have friends who like to sketch and paint but I hardly saw them posting pictures of their new arts, though they do tell about what new series they watched.
• Avoid infodemic: Too much of anything is always dangerous, so is the information about the pandemic. Too much information or too much of news updates is what the world calls infodemic. We need to avoid this infodemic as much as we avoid pandemic. Watching the news for 20-30 minutes is sufficient in a day, so avoid too much watching of news and too many health updates.

Other than these, I do have a few suggestions as well.

• Everyone is locked down at their places. Few are with family, few with their loved ones, few away from family but with their loved ones, few away from family as well as away from their loved ones, few have people to talk to personally, few have people to talk to formally, while few might not be able to talk to. Some may be waiting for the start of a conversation or some may have taken a huge step and tried to start a conversation. We should respect that. This is the time when the world needs to hold hands and bring all out of it and not push someone into depression after it.
• Not only that, but people should also respect others’ choices as well. If they are not interested, do not respond after a few messages, or just you have to always start the conversation, then my friend, avoid the beginning of such a toxic friendship.
• Having non-productive isolation days is fine. There’s no competition of who been the most productive or who learned the most in lockdown. However, having depressing isolation days is not fine.
• Well, we all must be missing something or someone in lockdown. How about writing letters or journal about it. Write a letter to the friend or family member you are missing right now and give it to them when all this is over. Or write about what things you are missing the most right now, which dish or which vacation or which destination, and write down about it in a journal.

Watching Netflix is good, but that is available in all other days too, this is the time that you might not again get alike in your lifetime, so how about making it special, even if it is stupid enough but special.

– Navneet