It is commonly said that tough times don’t last, only tough people do. A statement that needs to be persistently repeated in the unusual time that we have found ourselves in. The global pandemic has shuffled the pieces of our puzzling lives in a way that the pieces seem to be almost broken. However, if you look closely and deeply you will notice that in this incredibly rare situation humanity, as a whole, needs to collectively participate in putting the pieces back together. 

We have found ourselves in the midst of, what scholars like Ulrich Beck and Anthony Giddens call, the Risk Society. The struggles in Risk Societies are democratic by their very nature. They do not discriminate based on class, caste, gender, or any other primordial categories that the human race has come to attach incredible importance to. Consequently, the Covid-19 Virus is as dangerous for you as it is for me, and, unless we all come together in a collective effort to dispel this demon, it will linger in corners that will eventually create a path all the way to you. But enough on the gloomy knowledge about the virus and its dire consequences. The internet and media have bombarded us with information and images that have added to the feeling of anxiety that the Pandemic brought with it. Let’s discuss a very essential matter that some may claim has been over-emphasized in the past few months – Mental Health. 

Social Media feeds, instant messages, celebrity interviews and almost every other channel where you receive your source of connection to the world in these times is flushed with conversations around Mental Health. While I do not belong to the school of thought which believes that social media’s echo chambers are creating problems that don’t even exist, it is time to pause and think why has the world turned to this sudden public display of something so personal – their mental and emotional well-being. Yes, there would be multiple hypothesis surrounding this topic as well – mine, being just one among them. My belief is that most people, today, are suffering from some kind of mental health condition – and this is not to belittle those who do suffer chronic conditions that are incredibly difficult to deal with. Not everyone may be at the same end of the spectrum of mental health conditions. But, most people are somewhere on it. Having been relatively familiar with both psychology and sociology as academic fields, I would stand by the belief that mental health is most definitely a very individual and personal experience, but it is not devoid of the circumstances and the societal condition we find ourselves in. 

The Pandemic has definitely left us in the middle of a maze that is a very alien environment. The unpredictability of the virus – the way it is affecting different people in absolutely unexpected ways – along with the uncertainty of the changing norms and rules of society, has left us overwhelmed. There is an often unspoken-anxiety that resides within us. The present condition has let some of us lend a voice to that hidden anxiety. Yes, the bizarre conditions have aggravated our mental and emotional vulnerability, but it has not, in general, caused it. Rather, it has revealed it. So, here’s what I think. We are so used to distracting ourselves from ourselves, that it’s almost a refined skill that most of us can boast of today. With the coming of the global pandemic, we have been compelled to take a pause, and take some “time off” – from the usual routine that wouldn’t give us the time to think, the daily tasks that kept us distracted, the work we tend to use to define our worth, and the people whose gaze we use on a daily basis to see ourselves. Suddenly, we were given that one ghost that none of us seem to ever have – Time. The lack of time is a condition that is used to boast, albeit subtly, the importance of a person’s existence. “I don’t have the time to do anything. I am too busy.”  

An idle mind is a devil’s workshop, they say. I never seemed to like this idiom. Why should we feed into our subconscious mind that it can never be at rest? That, it has to constantly be “busy” to be non-demonic. Consequently, as we got less busy than we have been used to being, with Time by our side, we were left confused and anxious. We didn’t know what to do when faced with uncertainty of this measure. We’ve been academically trained in our fields of expertise, we’ve mastered the art of time management and multitasking, we’ve learnt how to sustain under extreme work stress. We have even learnt how to ignore all our problems, put our blinders on, and focus on the utilitarian tasks of achieving what society defines as valuable. What we haven’t learnt is to take care of our emotional and mental health. This may have been sustainable in a world that was suddenly hit by waves of modernity crashing into every aspect of life - with the work-play binary, the rising individualism, the language of utilitarian materialistic desires, the focus on planned pathways, unreal expectations, over-competitive environment hyper-real existence on social media, constant noise of information explosion and celebrated cynicism. 

Going to school became about subject learning, going to college became about getting the degree to land a good job, and getting a job became the way to get enough money to fulfill our material desires constructed by the media and advertising houses that are feeding on middle-class aspirations and conspicuous consumption. And, despite the exceptionally talented and workaholic citizens we have surrounded ourselves with, we were dropped into the middle of a maze that no expertise knew how to get out of. We have to accept that this existence, devoid of the value of spiritual silence, will not be sustainable anymore.

So, it’s time to rethink if the premier institutions and organisations of our times are only here to feed our desires to be something/someone else, or can we re-orient their goals and purpose to help us to be able to aware of ourselves, and learn the art of self-content and mindful existence with fellow humans. While school is a great place to learn mathematics, can it also be a place where we learn to sit quietly and understand the rhythm of music? While college is an unrivalled springboard to land a high-paying job, can it also be a space where we learn the art of community service? While the workplace is an unmatchable space to learn the value of multi-tasking, can it also be a place where we learn the value of fellow workers? 

Although these may seem far-fetched ideas to our modern cynically trained mechanical brains, if we just give our minds the rest it needs to clear the clouds of pessimism out, you will see that seeking for a world that is more peaceful and less selfish, is not an impossible dream. As part of the human race, we have seen miracles and life-changing events of unparalleled measure. We have established successful democracies, reached the moon, learnt to swim like a fish, fly to places across the globe and survive pandemics. The human mind, as we know it, is capable of so much more than we can imagine - and so is the human soul. We can collectively build a society that values emotions as much as it values skills; values hope as much as it values desires; values sympathy as much as it values ambition; values silence as much as it values information; and most importantly, we can create a society that teaches us to value solace as much as it values time. Maybe, then, we won’t be left off-guard when we are abruptly faced with too much of any unpleasant, unexpected, over or under-valued visitors – be it a Virus, or be it Time.