Category: Global Matters

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes the defining global health crisis of our lifetime. By the end of 2020 we are still in it and even with the exceptional historical arrival of the vaccine, we haven’t yet experienced the full brunt of its socioeconomic and emotional impact worldwide. Our world has changed, our lives have been uprooted in 2020 and the uncertain horizon continues to lie ahead of us. While we may stumble over the struggle, losses, fatigue, uncertainties, invasion of our freedoms, despair and everything else it has brought us, what if COVID-19 also is a call on us to reimagine what is possible for us and together reimagine our world? What if we together can even birth a better world?

Reimagine Yourself

COVID-19 arrived as a whirlwind forcing us to reset and fare in unthreaded territories. Winds of change were inevitable. The dimensions of change were unimaginable, even unbearable and most of the time unrecognizable. We were forced to see beyond our lives as we knew them to be. Losing our footing and sometimes losing ourselves became a part of the human experience in 2020. 

The COVID-19 whirlwind may have knocked us down, yet it proved to us that change is possible and provided us with a possibility to reimagine and reset ourselves and our lives. To rediscover our footing, we had to allow ourselves to be human. We had to allow ourselves to be vulnerable and nurture ourselves with a new level of compassion and care. We also had to vulnerably cross over new borders in ourselves and see ourselves and our lives with new eyes.

We had to ask ourselves some tough questions about how we stay true to ourselves and how we refocus on what truly matters to us in the face of the pandemic. We may also have had to navigate opposite poles of rediscovering connection and love despite social distance; finding freedom in the heavy restrictions; recreating joy and meaning in times of despair and reigniting new courage in the face of loss and desperation. With the possibility in front of us to reimagine, we can ask ourselves: what has 2020 taught me about myself, what is possible for me, and how can I stay more uncompromisingly true to myself in 2021? 

Reimagine Us

The COVID-19 whirlwind has been a social upheaval and it made us see how interdependent we are and how much we actually need each other. Some of us were locked up together at home, others locked up alone or separated and isolated from loved ones for months on, others had to leave home and yet some depended on others to overcome and survive the pandemic. 

We faced the same COVID-19 whirlwind, we shared the experience of disruption that framed our 2020, yet how it impacted us and how we thrived differed enormously based on the pre-existing structural, social, economic inequalities worldwide. Still COVID-19 may just have made us relate more compassionately to each other. It may just have made us see each other anew, whether in the case of our loved ones, our neighbors, the frontline health providers or people on the other side of the world. It may just have brought us closer together. We may just have rediscovered ourselves in each other; who we can be for each other; how we belong to each other and how we actually can be the change for each other. 

Examples of community, solidarity and togetherness marked some of the most heartfelt highlights of 2020 across the world. What does that teach us about who we are and how can those highlights inspire us to reimagine who we can be together?

Reimagine a Better World

The COVID-19 whirlwind uncovered the need to come together and unite across families, neighbourhoods, communities, people and countries in being humans together. It highlighted to us that we are bound together in our common humanity and how interdependent we are in overcoming the pandemic. We are only as strong as the weakest of us, and to overcome the COVID-19 whirlwind, we are bound to ignite a new level of local and global solidarity towards those hardest impacted. 

The pandemic brutally uncovered the deeper inequalities that disproportionately continue to make the poorest, most vulnerable and those living on the margins of society bear the brunt of the COVID-19 whirlwind. Such as people living in zones of war and humanitarian crisis; in refugee camps; slums; the homeless; women working in the informal sector; women everywhere facing heightened risk of domestic violence and vulnerable teenage girls forced to exchange schooling for marriage or unwanted pregnancy across the world. The unequal access to rights, opportunities and social welfare, revealed by the pandemic, echoes an urgent need for a new global social contract.

The COVID-19 serves as a possibility to reset and reimagine a more equal and inclusive world. Birthing a better world requires courage at the individual and collective levels – the courage that drove the inspiring actions of people across the world in “being someone for someone” to overcome and survive the COVID-19 whirlwind. It taught us what is possible when we embrace the humanity of others and see each other with new eyes. How can we be better humans together globally? How can we be someone for someone to equalize an unequal world?  

While the times we live in right now are radical enough in themselves, they also constitute a potential breeding ground for a change in how we relate, lead and conduct our affairs as a global community – individually and collectively. How we will fare post COVID-19 will depend on the courage to lead right now and on making the right and hard decisions in service to the collective good. This crisis presents a loud call for renewed leadership and some local and global leaders are already showing us what it takes to rise to this moment.

Unlocking the Feminine

“Unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word”, Martin Luther King

What appears to be making a difference right now, and a promise for the future, between who is rising to this moment and who is not, is the extent to which feminine leadership is unlocked as a timely alternative to wielding power – not necessarily bound to only female leaders. Feminine and masculine qualities live in all of us, yet the feminine are usually being downplayed as competitive edge to global leadership in the 21st century. However, COVID-19 is currently revealing to us that what we need more than ever, across the world, is leadership of collaboration, truth, integrity, courage, compassion, authenticity and collective purpose. COVID-19 is unlocking the feminine.

Courage to Be Authentic

“Daring leaders who live into their values are never silent about hard things” Brene Brown

These times are hard and uncertain, and the leaders who are rising to the moment are staying committed to communicating, discussing and leading from truth. Not because it is easy, or because the truth is easy – rather because it is who they are and what is right. When times get hard is when we get to see what people are truly made of. Jacinda Arden, Andrew Cuomo and Angela Merkel are examples of leaders unlocking the feminine when showing up with compassion, listening and putting themselves in the place of the people they serve – because it is who they are. Leaders exhibiting emotional intelligence (self awareness, self management, social awareness and relationship management), are unlocking the feminine, which often makes them trailblazers in the face of the old, hierarchical, top-down and control-driven leadership. Leaders who allow us to experience them falling short or being vulnerable in the midst of the hard and uncertain COVID-19 times are unlocking the feminine, which actually is what creates trust and integrity, and make them human and relatable – especially needed in times of crisis.

Courage to Lead

“I refuse to believe that you cannot be both compassionate and strong”, Jacinda Ardern

Forbes, The Telegraph and others have made the connection between countries with female leaders and the successful response to the pandemic, from Iceland to New Zealand, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Taiwan and Norway. Apart from being willing to communicate truth and quickly inspire and foster collaborative efforts, they are also commended for acting and making hard decision early. Leaders leaning into the feminine in how they lead are selflessly driven by a cause or purpose larger than themselves – with or without a crisis. They are placing emphasis on collaborative leadership, empowering and bringing people together around a common purpose, making every one play its part – with or without a crisis. They see beyond individual credit, gain or fame and are incorruptibly and courageously serving the collective good – with or without a crisis. Perhaps in these times of crisis, the well-rounded, trusted and value-based foundation of who they already are as leaders and what drives them to lead is what enables them to swiftly, naturally and brilliantly rise to the moment of the COVID-19 crisis – echoing a promise of a more feminine future.

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”, Victor Frankl.

Out of the turmoil caused by COVID-19 across the world right now, a collective vulnerability has naturally emerged with multiple individual faces from uncertainty to despair, hope, gratitude, overwhelm, discomfort, humility, love, fear etc. On some days we are experiencing all of them at the same time. We are made inconveniently powerless and suddenly out of control of the unfolding of our lives, and 2020 as we envisioned it, is becoming more unrecognisable by the day. It is natural to experience moments of loosing our footing, loosing our focus or loosing ourselves right now. These times both challenge and encourage us to be more caring and standing incorruptible for ourselves.

See and Embrace our Own Humanity

“Surrender is a journey from the outer turmoil to the inner peace”, Sri Chinmoy

The possibility in front of us may lie in surrendering to the pausing of the world rather than resisting the uncontrollable. COVID-19 is inconveniently slowing down our lives, yet allowing us to pause and silence the outer noise to be present with ourselves, each other and our lives. One of the fruits we can harvest from this downtime is to see ourselves, each other and our lives in a clearer light. Deeper truths; what we love; our gratitude gems; our unresolved issues or wounds that we previously suppressed or forgot; or even dreams we long to make come true – may all rise up in our awareness. Those moments are calls on us to see and embrace new layers of our wholeness as women and the full humanity that make up who we truly are. It is a call to return to ourselves. The key is to compassionately and incorruptibly be with whatever may rise for us right now.

Being with our Truth

“It is only when we silence the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts”, K.T Jong

Once we allow ourselves to see, embrace and be with what is true for us right now, we are also creating a sanctuary of freedom and possibilities to incorruptibly care and stand for ourselves through owning and expressing our truth. Maybe we will discover needs we never really attended to before, or layers of ourselves that we had previously suppressed or ways of sharing what is in our hearts. The key is to practice being with what is true for us right now and respond to our needs with some soothing self care and empowerment rituals. Maybe this means creating a special morning ritual; immersing ourselves into creative playtime with loved ones; carving out time to just be silent with ourselves; establishing new ways of being with and connecting with our family, community and tribe; creating new routines to meet a goal; meditating; singing or dancing; enjoying the bliss of nature and sunlight; exercising; scheduling weekly virtual sundowners or discovering a new hobby or talent etc.

Look Beyond

“She discovered who she was, and the game changed”, Lalah Delia

Even if the vulnerability rises up differently in each and one of us right now, we can all approach it as a gateway back to ourselves. When we allow our vulnerability to be a call to embrace new layers of our wholeness as women and the full humanity that makes up who we truly are, we are taking our power back independently of the outer turmoil. What if our frequent stumbling in the face of these unprecedented COVID-19 times, is part of the emergence of a new world? What if fully embracing and showing up in our unique wholeness makes us part of the ripple effect of goodness unfolding everywhere right now? What if being incorruptible in standing for ourselves actually equals standing together for a better world?

While the COVID-19 pandemic is transforming our world as we knew it; breaking down our lives as we knew them to be; distancing us from those we love and who add meaning to our lives; robbing our freedoms under the strict lockdown measures, turning us into what sometimes feel as prisoners in our own homes – a light is still shinning through the destructive cracks.

Last week a soul sister shared with me how she had caught herself in noticing the flowers growing into springtime bloom in the pots on her balcony, something she had not paid much attention to before. “These times are making us pause and see things we never saw before even if they always were there”, she said.

Open Your Heart to This Moment

It is natural to be in resistance to the new realities thrown upon us over night, it is also natural to try to escape the truth of those realities because they are causing so much havoc, fear, uncertainty and discomfort – and it is also in all of us to become rather impatient with the COVID-19 grip on our lives. This is all real and it is messy, and yet we are still left with the simple freedom to see it all with new eyes.

What if these times are also a launching pad for us to pause, look closer and see with new eyes – catching the light that is getting in right now. We might suddenly discover the magic of the blooming flower on our balcony, become aware of the morning sunlight in our faces, immersing ourselves fully into playing with a child, noticing the gaze of a loved one, walking barefoot and connecting with the ground underneath us after days in quarantine, appreciating laughing together across the world on a Zoom call, seeing the springtime beauty surrounding us, and truly listening to someone’s storytelling over morning coffee at home.

A Gateway to Gratefulness

“Be grateful for what you have and you will end up having more”, Oprah

When we allow ourselves to see with new eyes, a new appreciation of small moments, small things, and small experiences may just emerge in us. COVID-19 is providing us with a gateway to truly pause and soften ourselves into this moment, allowing ourselves to be right here and rediscovering what in fact is right in front of us.

This is not making the havoc, fear, uncertainty and discomfort go away, yet it is providing us with a simple freedom to take back our power in each moment. Seeing with new eyes can provide us with a different lens on those new realities – and maybe in the midst of the grip of COVID-19, seeing with new eyes can ignite a new gratitude in us – gratitude for something that maybe always was right in front of us. My eyes continue to catch the togetherness, community and solidarity emerging everywhere and I lean deeper and deeper into the soothing calm and beauty of nature as it emerges and unfolds right here in front of me.

What is catching your sight right now when allowing yourself to see with new eyes?

While the coronavirus epidemic is putting our lives in turmoil across the world and turning our societies unrecognisable over night with limited mobility; empty streets, schools and airports; lockdown of countries; restrictions on our social pursuits and freedoms and militant directives on social distancing in order to urgently diminish its spread, it might just also provide a necessary reset and (ironically) connect us closer together.

Infusing Interconnectedness

The coronavirus is affecting us across continents, borders, ethnicity, skin color, gender and income levels – it does not discriminate or favorize, and social status or privilige will not set anyone free. We are not only equal in the risk to be affected, we are also bound together in our interconnectedness, depending on the action and responsibility of each other. Additionally, wherever we look across the world right now, the coronavirus grounds are common. The interruptive avalanche on our socioeconomic lives is similar, the protective and preventive measurements taken are similar, and the fear, anxiety, overwhelm, and uncertainty we experience is similar – we are in the same storm – we can relate to each other and find compassion for each other from the experience of our own current reality.

Standing Together

We are all in this together and we will only win if we stand and come together. The coronavirus is demanding us to pause and to reset our lives as we know them – and to stand tighter together, whether as a family, neighbourhood, country or global community. What if the coronavirus is a call to reset our lives and come back to what truly matters to us? What if it calls on us to see ourselves, each other and our world with new eyes? What if it is a call on us to be, come and stand stronger and better together? What if it is a call on radical compassion for each other across the world, reminding us that in fact we are equal in our common humanity?

While the turmoil of our everyday lives is real, equal to the deep uncertainty and overwhelming fear we might be experiencing, take a moment to reflect upon what the coronavirus reset came to teach you.

Reset our Compassion for Each Other

“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together”, Desmund Tutu

What if the lesson the coronavirus is passing on to us is radical and actionable compassion? When seeing this epidemic with new eyes, we might start to witness the possibility in front of us for an emergency of more compassion for each other. At the heart of compassion is acceptance; the better we are at accepting the reality in front of us right now, the more compassionate we can become towards ourselves and each other. This is true for the coronavirus times as well as beyond.

Just imagine for a moment if these months of isolation, restricted movements and time in quarantine became our everyday lives, and now imagine that this “experience” in fact is what life looks like for millions of people around the world from slave camps in Libya, refugee camps in South Sudan, Lesbos, Bangladesh, DRC, Turkey, Syria etc., indigenous people fighting for their survival (and ours) in the Amazonia, women being restricted in their movements across the world, across Latin America notably due to the risk of femicide and in Saudi Arabia due to the male guardianship system among other examples.

In these times of complete global reset, lets recall that with or without the coronavirus we are equal and bound together in our common humanity and interconnectedness. Recognising our shared humanity is a reflection of real compassion because it means that we are able to clearly see ourselves in each other.