Editor’s note: Angry about this headline? Check your stories. Your stories – thoughts you think and beliefs you hold – create your life experience. Including who you meet and how those relationships go. Looking for the love of your life, that perfect partner you want? Then first you must become that which you want. If this headline freaks you out, you’re not doing that. That is why you can’t find your transgender or cis-male partner. 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾
Everything works out because that’s how life works. All relationships work out, even pain in the ass, always arguing, never-having-sex relationships. Even cis-trans relationships.
But if I tell stories consistent with the struggle, the fighting, the no-sex experience, I get more of that. I get more of that because I create life experience.
So what about COVID-19? If I create life experience what’s up with COVID-19? Most people struggle when told they create negative life experience. Facing a pandemic, it seems foolish thinking such thoughts.
“You’re blaming the victim” goes the tired, knee-jerk response, a response springing from beliefs in a random, objective reality separate from what we are.
Nearly everyone believes the physical world and humans exist independently. So when told they create the physical world they inhabit, this trope spills from people’s mouths out like vomit: involuntarily.
The pandemic sweeping the globe, triggering people’s fears and worries, springs from our collective focus. It’s both a culmination and a beginning. Results coming from it loudly and clearly indicate a shift towards better futures for everyone. That’s obvious, when telling the right stories.
COVID-19 presents great positive opportunity. It must, because everything works out. In these positive stories, I see awesome ways in which COVID-19 benefits us all. Here are ten. There are many more.
1. We’re all in this together
COVID-19 reveals something we know, but ignore: we’re all on the same planet and we create our individual AND our collectively reality. One person’s actions affect the entire planet. That’s always happening. This pandemic clarifies our connectedness. On the plus side, that means one person’s act can change the world for the better as it can do the opposite. That’s good news!
2. It’s bringing out the best of us
I’ve seen police serenading neighborhoods from empty streets in Italy, medical personnel acting heroically in hospitals, storeowners setting aside special elderly shopping hours. We’ve gotten back in touch with each other and our communities. We’re greeting each other more (from six feet away). It’s a good thing.
3. We’re rethinking priorities
Loved ones, family members, friends, community…all these things took second fiddle in our earn-a-living-society. Not any more. Amidst COVID-19, loved ones, family members, friends and community hold center stage. It could remain that way going forward. If we want.
Research shows people on deathbeds rarely say “I wish I would have worked harder!” Instead, they regret spending so much time at work. No better time to restructure priorities than now. COVID-19 gives us that time.
4. It’s clarifying real value
Forced home, isolation demands we get comfortable with ourselves. Isolation frightens some. Prolonged isolation from COVID-19 can bring introspection and renewed self-value and self discovery. Taking quiet time, focusing more on one’s own company brings many rewards. COVID-19 could resurface our lasting and inestimable individual and collective value.
5. We’re rethinking jobs
COVID-19 strongly affects some people. Sheltering in place confronts beliefs about working jobs we hate. These people LOVE LOVE LOVE not working right now, but also feel shame and embarrassment about that. Society makes us think we’re worthless if we don’t work, pull our weight or “get a job”. Some realize under COVID-19 that those shibboleths are false. That’s great awareness!
And, there are others who get how much they LOVE LOVE LOVE their work. They’re refreshed in their isolation, but also antsy. They find great value doing something they believe important. Even if it’s not. That’s great too!
6. Some are rethinking “earning a living”
On a bigger scale, people see now the terrific tie between them and this economy. Like hamsters on a wheel, if people don’t work, the whole shebang stops. This realization could awaken whole new ideas about running societies and economies. Are we brave enough to leap into the (seeming) unknown?
7. It’s changing what’s possible politically
Never in a thousand years would I predict that REPUBLICANS would send federal checks directly to individuals. And yet that’s exactly what’s happening. It looks like Andrew Yang’s Universal Basic Income proposal got implemented, in various forms, other countries as a stop-gap to total economic destruction. Our bailouts here in the US may not be as grand, but amazingly, the bedeviled idea “socialism” is what is keeping us from total economic ruin. Paradigms could change from all this. If we want.
8. Air pollution? What air pollution?
With so many not working and businesses not running, already we see changes happening with less pollution coming from cities and industry. If humanity acts decisively on climate change, big environmental reversals can happen fast. COVID-19 allows a glimpse at a possible future.
9. Some now think different
Radical ideas may not be as radical as we thought. COVID-19 offers contemplating new ideas economic ideas that don’t tie humanity to economic output. Emerging from COVID-19, can we create a new economy not demanding human effort as its fuel? Anything’s possible now. Thanks COVID-19!
10. It’s part of the great shift
With every major historical, negative event, humanity, on the other side of them, came out better. Every major war, every great plague, and every natural disaster launched more and better human ideas. No matter what humans face, on the other side we get better. I know this pandemic complements a spiritual shift urging us towards the future. Perhaps we will heed that call. That would be great!
COVID-19 prompts different reactions from different people. More accurately, one’s beliefs, their stories both shape people’s reactions and people’s futures. I know the more people see positive things happening in the world, the more positive the world gets for those people. Come to where you easily meet the love of your life, pandemic or not. Learn how to tell your life story so it matches your dreams, instead of your frustrations.
