Lockdown expose the mental state of many people

After many days/weeks of observing lockdown in many different countries, not just that the process of lockdown could help to contain the global epidemic effectively, but unintentionally, it also helps to expose the mental state of many people, where many people themselves are not aware of their own mental state that is not so well. Some people appreciate and enjoy the many days/weeks being with their family/relative/friend physically under the same roof at this time being, but there are also many more people are starting to behave in the way that is not how they usually behaved due to being restricted from the freedom of going somewhere and doing something that one likes and familiars with, as well as being physically constraint in a limited space all the time being with the family/relatives/friends.

People are worried about those who lives alone during this time being, and encourage companionship of family, relatives or friends staying close together under the same roof during the lockdown for a prolonged period of time, but actually, that could be generating or exposing more 'human interactive problems' among one another physically/mentally/emotionally than those who lives alone.

Some people are developing momentary mild mental stress/instability due to anxiety towards the present situation, but some are already suffering from mental illness/breakdown even before the lockdown that never been treated properly as they weren't even aware of it, but now, it's being 'forced' to be exposed due to there's not enough personal time and space where two or more people are being 'stuck' together physically sharing the same limited living space under the same roof being refrained from their many out of the house social leisure activity with some other 'beings' or just to be having some personal time and space being alone by themselves to 'escape' the 'tension/stress' built up at home being with the people that they live with.

The accumulating tension, stress, frustration and dissatisfaction are not only deriving from anxiety generated towards the pandemic situation, but also from dealing with the 'normal yet abnormal' human's behavior of the other members living in the same house undergoing the process of lockdown. People under stress are starting to loose their limited patience/tolerance and behaving aggressively towards one another who live under the same roof. It's not strange that there will be more and more family/relationship problem brewing slowly/rapidly and domestic abuse are increasingly happening everywhere.

Meanwhile there will be somewhat 'mentally/emotionally healthy' people are appreciating the 'enforced' time and space being with their loved ones and learn how to be more patient and tolerant under this lockdown situation for a prolonged period of time.

 

(Updated in August 2021)

After a prolonged ‘failed’ ongoing lockdown authorized by certain ‘authority’ that think they know what they are doing but actually they don’t really know what they are doing, that doesn’t really help to contain the pandemic, but generating further stress to the common people as they are losing their livelihood and maybe also losing their loved ones due to the disease, on top of dealing with fear towards contracting the disease and fear towards being prosecuted under the many added ‘new’ rules and regulations that are being introduced from time to time with the ‘intention’ to curb the pandemic, and hence, there are more and more people are suffering from intense anxiety and depression due to financial and health crisis, especially living in areas that are under an authority that didn’t provide sufficient finance and health care assistance to their people.

 

The many ‘information’ towards the vaccines that are circulating on social medias also doesn’t help. However, everyone have their own freedom of thinking, belief and choices towards any information about vaccines, especially the role of vaccination, as well as whether certain people might have certain health complications or allergies that don’t allow them to take certain drugs or any form of vaccines, even if they would prefer to be vaccinated against certain diseases. Everyone have the freedom to express what they think and desire, and what they do or don’t do with their body or life existence. Everyone also take the responsibility towards one's desire and the consequences of one's desire.

 

For yoga practitioners, it’s not about how all the others think, believe and desire, not to say, to reason everything based on what others think, believe and desire, but one would reason and inquire what are the most beneficial actions that can be done in this present moment for helping the entire world to move forward, without being influenced by any particular thinking and belief in the world of ignorance and egoism. More importantly, yoga is not separated from science. Life is science. Human’s body mechanism is science. Human’s behavior is science. Hormones, secretions, bodily organs and systems, cells, atoms, neurons, muscular and bone structures and etc, are science. Selflessness and Impermanence is science. How everything exist, change, and ceased existing, is science. The nature’s law of cause and effect is science. Yoga of silence is science beyond names and forms.

 

One is fearless towards making the appropriate decision and the consequences of one’s decision, uninfluenced by one’s family and friends and community’s different opinions about the vaccines. There’s no perfection in any decision and action. There are pros and cons in any actions. The fearless beings perform actions based on what is most beneficial for the world to move forward, without attachment, identification, judgment, or expectation.

 

The teachings of yoga doesn’t discriminate any kind of names and forms, not to say, anyone’s decision towards getting vaccinated, or not, especially in a prolonged pandemic situation. The difference between yoga practitioner and non-yoga practitioner is whether one inquires the truth of everything without being influenced by any particular worldly thinking and belief that are under the influence of ignorance and egoism to judge everything, or not.

Take good care of the body and mind?

Learning and practicing yoga actually is also about learning how to take good care of the overall well-being of the body and the mind in everyday life, but without attachment and identification towards the impermanent condition of the body and the mind.

It's not just about doing some yoga asana and pranayama and meditation practice for a couple of hours a day regularly as a form of taking good care of the body and the mind, but more importantly in the rest of the time in everyday life, when the body and mind are not performing physical postures, breathing exercises, concentration and meditation practice, we need to know how to live in simplicity, how to conserve energy, when to take rest, when to work more, when to work less, when to eat more, when to eat less, how to relax or let go, how to stop generate unnecessary tension into the body and mind, how to stop pushing the body and mind beyond its limitation, and etc, to truly taking good care of the overall well-being of the body and mind.

Out of laziness, or stinginess, or particular obsessive compulsive disorder, or great ambition, or sociable personality, or caring personality, or lack of self-control and self-discipline, or some other issues, people might not rest well, eat well, work well, or relax properly, and the body and mind are either being in a state of lethargic or agitation due to accumulated strain and stress or restlessness, even though people try to do yoga asana and pranayama and meditation practice regularly. It's like, now we sweep and mop the floor, and then, we bring more dirt and dust onto the floor, and repeat this process again and again.

When the condition of the body and mind be affected by the improper or imbalanced way of living, the mind becomes tired, cloudy, unfocused, short-tempered, depressed, irritated, impatient, aggressive or anxious easily. This will affect the yoga asana and pranayama and meditation practice, as well as the ongoing function of all the support systems in the body, the sleep quality, the mood, the thinking faculty, the clarity of the mind, the physical mobility, the health condition, the energy level, and the relationships with everyone and everything.

Learn how to live a simple yet balanced lifestyle is as important as doing the yoga asana and pranayama and meditation practice regularly. Simple yet balanced lifestyle has nothing to do with the commercial products of branded and trendy hype of 'luxurious organic living', or 'organic clean eating', or 'calorie counting eating', or 'precise daily consumption limits of different food intake', or 'health and fitness products and supplements', but it's about incorporating the teachings of yoga of 'Do our best', non-attachment, non-identification, desireless, dispassion, right discrimination, non-craving, non-aversion, non-judgment, non-comparison, non-expectation, renunciation, seclusion, solitude, silence, concentration or one-pointedness, contentment, generosity, forgiveness, patience, determination, perseverance, acceptance, adjustment, adaptation and accommodation into everyday life activities, to stop or minimize accumulation of unnecessary tension into the systems.

If one knows how to live a simple yet balanced lifestyle, if one knows how to conserve energy and doesn't put unnecessary stress or strain into the body and mind, there's no tension accumulated, and there's no need to go anywhere or do anything to release tension, as there's none.

"I am so busy and so stressed and so tired. I have not enough time to eat or sleep properly. I have so many friends and relatives. I need to care for so many people in my life. I have so many personal and social functions I need to attend. There's so many things I want to do for myself and for everyone. My mind can't turn-off. I would love a holiday but I will need time and energy for it, as I would be exhausted after coming back from holiday doing all the holiday activities and eating so much. I know I need complete rest. I need to stop doing things, physically and mentally. But then I will feel so guilty and unhappy if I didn't manage to do my fitness workout everyday, if I didn't meet up with my friends to stay connect, if I wasn't there for my friends who need me to listen to their problems and complaints, if I didn't achieve all my daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals. So how?"

It's everyone's freedom for what they want to do with their life or how they spend their time and energy.

Be free.

If being stressed doesn't change the outcome, why stressed then?

If we have some obligated duties and responsibilities in our lives towards ourselves and our family that make us feel tied-up, and thinking that we have to achieve certain results to gain maximum return whether it's for financial stability or it's to maintain certain credibility of professionalism in a particular work-field, unwittingly we live under stress and being anxious towards our performance and the result of our performance. We are accumulating lots of tension mentally and physically. This will hinder us from performing at our best, affecting our work performance, and eventually our physical and mental health condition will be disturbed. This stops us from carrying out our duties and responsibilities efficiently.

We can just do our best in whatever we do, and allow the outcome to be what it is. There's nothing need to be stressed and anxious about.

By being stressed and anxious doesn't change the outcome of anything to become better than what it is.

Why stressed then?

It is the egoism, attachment, identification, expectation, and the desires of craving and aversion that make us think that we cannot fail, or we have to achieve certain results, that generate unnecessary stress and anxiety in the mind.

We can learn how let go of the ego, attachment, identification, expectation, and the desires of craving and aversion, learn how to live in the present moment, and just do our best to perform all our duties and responsibilities without any stress or anxiety.

Certain anxiety is due to hormonal changes/imbalanced or even brain malfunctioning/damage, it's not necessarily has anything to do with external elements. Such like, we could have anxiety attack out of a sudden even though everything in our life is good or there's nothing to be worry about. In that case, one might need to do something that could help to regulate and balancing the hormonal system. Usually by having regular sufficient physical exercises and eating healthily, as well as by balancing work/activity and relax/sleep will help to regulate and balancing the hormonal system in the body.

Om shanti.