Getting Covid-19

When I first found out that I had Covid-19, I was in camp getting ready to go home because of the flu bug I was suffering from. I did an ART test just before leaving so that I understood the precautions that I would have to take when I got home. I did not expect a positive test result. I have a tendency of falling sick when I go back for reservist - there is just something about the dust on that side of the island which gets me sick - so Covid-19 was never my first guess when my nose started leaking.

I felt a pang of fatigue sweep over me as I thought of the walk out of camp. I would get no help as I had Covid-19 and at that point, I was a walking plague. Lugging my army stuff along as I made the walk out of camp, I kept on thinking of an excerpt from a book I had been reading during my time in camp - a book called “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari” by Robin Sharma – which said, “Every event has a purpose and every setback its lesson”.

I was wondering what exactly the purpose could be here as I had fallen ill with Covid-19 almost two years after it first became public knowledge. I knew that I had ten days of isolation ahead of me and while some days would be spent recovering from Covid-19, I would have many other days to sit and reflect on what lay ahead of me.

I am on my seventh day of isolation now and I am still testing positive for Covid-19. In three days, I will be free to leave my room of isolation and go out freely again. I am almost completely recovered at this point, and I hope to use the next couple of days to implement some of my learnings from the book by Robin Sharma.

In the book, there were many interesting perspectives but there are just a handful which I want to incorporate into my daily life. The first one being the Heart of the Rose, where the aim is to stare at a rose and notice everything about it without allowing other thoughts to distract you. For me, mastering this skill will allow me to focus on the task at hand without allowing the usual distractions such as my incoming messages distract me.

Another one which I liked was the practice of kaizen which is a Japanese concept of continuous improvement. By taking the time to master your mind, to care for your body and to nourish your soul, I will put myself in a better position to develop more richness and vitality in your life. I must admit it does sound tiring to always reflect on how you could do things better and push yourself beyond limits, but it sounds liberating too.

The last one has to do with respecting my own time, by learning how to say no and focussing on doing the things which I prioritise in my life over other things. It seems multi-layered but in fact, I can decide whether to do something by asking myself if I would do that on the last day of my life. It may seem dark, but it is a good way of prioritising my time.

I hope to incorporate these learnings into my day, and in the process live a more meaningful life.