The modern age ended in March 2020, opening the doors to a brand new age — the age of self-awareness. Enslaved by speed, pleasure, and consumption, we have forgotten our true identity and fell in love with the tools we have created. Everything fades away, and we thought we are permanent.

Our power placed us on top of the global food chain, but we considered ourselves like a king with authority to rule the world. Our technology made us arrogant. The rich build a Babel Tower with the efforts of the poor but got hallucinated by power.

We cannot find happiness in simplicity anymore, nor can we slow down and watch the beautiful sunset. Buying and consuming without a real need has become more important than buying the right stuff. Even love has turned into a game of exchanging strong emotions until the magic is lost.

The pandemic has come as trouble, but I am one of those saying that it is nothing but a cure for a better world. We better learn the 9 following lessons to live a better life in the post-pandemic world.

SLOW DOWN

A sense of urgency is a good thing, but living in urgency all the time is not healthy. Similarly, the stress response, which helped us survive the dangers of nature for thousands of years, has evolved into chronic stress, acting as a silent murderer.

Recent neuroscience research unveils that multi-tasking, one of the favorite adjectives to describe success factors, is a proven way to reduce gray cells in our brains and leads to concentration problems in the long term.

Who cares what happens to you after you deliver what you were asked for? You must take care of yourself, my friend. SO PLEASE SLOW DOWN.

Do you know what happens when you do not slow down?

You think like you are getting a lot of things done, but you are living in a crisis mode. It takes harder to switch your mind from work to social life when you head back home.

Sleeping takes time, and you sleep like the dead. More success attracts the need to do more, and people ask more and more beyond your limits until you burn out one day.

You will also miss the best days of your children and skip the important matters of the people around you. As a person who did not invest enough in relations, you may be alone when you retire. You may even die rich but alone. How about that?

Moreover, you will never ever enjoy the sunset or a butterfly flying off the flower because of your busy mind and lack of concentration. I hope you got my point.

Slow down to enjoy your single life. Anything can happen in minutes, and you are out of the game. Look at how many people died in the pandemic. Who wants to die in regret? No one.

FOCUS ON THE RIGHT STUFF

Family, beloved ones, good friends, health, happiness, peace of mind, the environment are the top priorities in your life.

When was the last time you spent quality time with the loved ones? When you lose your job, people will forget you quickly, especially in individualistic cultures. The moment you lose your power and authority as a leader, most people will disappear from your life to take off another destination they can utilize.

How many of your dear friends call you unless they want to chat to relieve their boredom during the pandemic?

Spend your time and energy on the right stuff.

BECOME A SILENT WITNESS (NO JUDGMENTS)

Judgment is a silent killer. Everyone has an inner chat inside her/him.
The untrained mind is like a restless monkey jumping from one idea to another like a leaf flowing uncontrollably in the air in a breeze.

An unfocused mind has another problem — the inner judge. It criticizes, condemns, labels, categorizes, classifies, judges, accuses, and assumes to protect the ego mechanism. This self-defense mechanism is a deadly weapon in your head unless strong negative emotions take over the mind.

Becoming a silent witness is tough. It requires non-judgment, which is a result of accepting everything as is. Acceptance is easy in good times, and the hard thing is to accept when troubles find us.

It is hard to sit still, eliminate anxiety and worry in the pandemic, and the economic crisis following it. Start with acceptance to keep your inner balance because once you lose your balance, your strong emotions will drive you like a broken race car; the result is a crash.

ENJOY THE MOMENT

The monkey mind, the inner critic, the inability to distinguish between right and wrong, and the fight between the mind and conscience prevent us from being in the moment. Thus, you live in the past daydreaming, self-accusing, and self-judging and the future fantasizing, over-planning, worrying.
Let go of the illusion that you can control everything in life.

Who can plan for a pandemic or a devastating war in life? Plan less and live more. Stick to your dreams and listen to your conscience. The rest is flexible.

LET GO

You cannot control anything 100% in life; you can only prepare for it.
You cannot live with toxic people. They will drain you.
You cannot manipulate others to meet your needs. Such efforts and more will perish you after a while.

Do your best, prepare as best you can, and leave the rest. Be flexible to flow with the spirit of the time. Harmonize with the gifts and tests of life.

The pandemic is there, and it makes us worry. Minimize your life, cut your spending, keep your job, find alternative income streams, network to get to know more people, learn and develop new skills. Do the best you can and let go. Let go and let God. Life is a test for us but have faith in the fact that beauty and prosperity will find you at the right time, like the dawn, after the darkest hour of the night.

LOVE MORE

Fear and love are the opposite sides of the same stick. They cannot be separated from each other. You reap what you sow in life, so choose to live with love as it will bring prosperity not only for you but also for everyone. The same attracts the same, so sow love.

GIVE BACK UNCONDITIONALLY

We are as strong as the communities we live in. You can be strong and successful today, and a pandemic can wipe out everything. Didn’t it happen? You can fall in a day from the peak of the corporate mountain of success and recognition and lose many of your material possessions. You may even lose your health.

The idea of a social government you may have rejected before when you made a great living in the past can be something you are asking for today.

Only God does not fall. So, help more when you enjoy the mountaintop view.

EMBRACE DIVERSITY

The pandemic does not discriminate between religions, ethics, gender, culture, sexual identity, political views, and more. The cure to it can come from any country, and we will embrace it right away. We are stronger together so, we better stop discriminating and fighting among each other.

We have only one home, which is a tiny planet in the vastness of the cosmos. So, we better remember our universal brotherhood and sisterhood as the children of the same source. We are all droplets of the same ocean willing to unite with it. Our paths could be different, but the source and the destination are the same.

LEARN, LEARN, LEARN

As I summarized in my article about the 55 trends that will change the world, the upcoming change is inevitable. It has already started. Don’t by a Sisyphus. We better learn and adapt to change, like a caterpillar, and teach our children to do the same. Become a butterfly. It is your destiny. What a butterfly calls death is a beginning for a butterfly.

The pandemic has come and hit us all. Rise above the suffering of the world with these nine rules of survival in a post-pandemic world.

Be the change. Lead the change. Don’t only change, transform!

Cheers,

Kenan

www.kenankolday.com

PS - Join my newsletter if you are a someone searching after the Truth. https://schoolofwisdom.substack.com