The PPE we need in COVID19 and beyond
ppe
technically stands for personal
protective equipment
a term that has been widely used since
the beginning of the corona virus
pandemic
an acronym that we have been constantly
hearing as we have come to learn
that it is what protects healthcare
workers frontliners
and any other individual from getting
infected
but regardless of being a healthcare
worker can the acronym ppe
also hold elements that would carry us
through in living our lives
in march of last year i can vividly
recall the moment when schools and
universities started to close
its doors in fact prior to that
i along with some council members have
been discussing and thoroughly planning
for this
big cultural day event at the university
only to have it unexpectedly cancelled a
week after
and i’m pretty sure that just like that
event countless other plants everywhere
were halted and what was regarded as a
one to two week off
brought us to more weeks and months
and until a year of just facing our
screens
wondering when we could ever go back to
normal
years ago no one even saw this coming
maybe except for bill gates who at 2015
gave
a tedx talk of how we must prepare for
the next global outbreak
and true enough here we are
for many of us this whole situation has
been a challenge to digest
i see people expressing their sentiments
all over social media about how months
of staying at home has made
most of us feel like prisoners creating
immense feelings of isolation
and about how online classes and work
from homes can be as mentally draining
and about how the pandemic just left us
feeling lost and confronted us with this
ruined timeline of plans
and beyond that it was also a drastic
360 degree turnaround for me
losing my dad to covid which was
an unfortunate thing to live with
who would have thought that it could
have been that bad
exactly a year ago all i could do was
continue with my online classes and
decide as i
curl up into my sheets and dealt with
such traumatic loss
i felt like i was stuck in a void it
seemingly had no light
at the end of it but it was also amidst
a series of struggles that i found
the first p i found purpose
and this purpose is what keeps you
grounded when all else fails
and because of this purpose i find
myself here today
sharing with you a gift through this
talk that could
hopefully in one way or another
cultivate this refined perspective
in each one of us however this purpose
wasn’t a passive discovery
it didn’t unfold the moment i felt grief
or melancholy
or the moment i woke up in the morning
feeling empty and lost
seeking and finding one’s purpose
requires active
self-reflection and that is exactly what
i’ve done
as defined active self-reflection is
when we make a deliberate effort to
dig deep into our core to regularly
examine link and develop meaning from
our experiences
and it does take time to build up
from that heartbreaking loss i had
endless questions of why
of what the purpose is for it to
transpire in that way
and what is in it for me to experience
such gravity
these thoughts kept lingering in my head
and the only way to find peace within
myself
was to find answers and find answers
i had to step back i had to acknowledge
my emotions
and i had to reflect
and there are many ways to engage in
reflection
if you happen to be someone with this
tight spiritual background you can do it
through prayer
or through a religious ritual that you
firmly believe in
you can also grab a book to read whether
it is a holy book
a self-improvement book or a fiction
novel
in 2010 a study was conducted on a group
of 26 000 teenagers throughout wales and
england
and they learned that those who read the
bible appear to have
built the stronger sense of purpose
while a survey of empirical studies from
raymond marr and his colleagues revealed
that a relationship
between reading poetry and fiction and a
sense of purpose
among adolescents were existent
so reading is a silent yet powerful
activity that connects us to
ideas of people that we may never even
know
but research suggests that diving
ourselves into
these kinds of insightful narratives
opens our minds to establish
this sense of meaning because purpose
after
all can also be considered as an
intellectual pursuit
so find books that matter to you and
this might help you cope up
and realize what truly matters in your
own life
and as much as reading can help so does
reflective writing
it is important to list the things that
you have in your mind to alleviate the
overflowing thoughts and questioning
from there you can release all the
tension in your head
organize it linking every idea to build
something clear and meaningful
it may be in the form of a mind map a
diary
a journal or a story
you don’t have to construct something of
perfect words
grammar or structure just freely express
everything you are thinking and feeling
in paper
or you can also opt to speak and record
yourself if you think that would be more
effective for you
otherwise it is truly tough to draw
conclusions
and realizations when our mind is
overwhelmed
so writing all these down is just
similar to how we jot down notes and
lectures
every time we get overwhelmed with
information and every time we
spot something of notable importance
and the moment we go back to it to
review these notes may even be jumbled
up
and disorganized but having a record of
it in the first place
allows us to reorganize everything
understand how ideas connect with each
other
and later on realize the gist and the
general purpose behind this particular
topic
so never underestimate the power of
writing
document all these thoughts and feelings
to help you see things
and a bigger picture and to give you a
record that you can always go back to
because we never know how useful it can
be
in the long run and apart from
these two ways one also cannot erase the
fact that
we human beings are social beings
so you can also choose to reach out and
have a conversation with a trusted
friend
a family member a colleague or
a mentor to help you unravel unspoken
and inexplicable thoughts and
eventually dissect meaning reflection
may be done more effectively when you’re
not all alone
when you have someone else by your side
who actually helps you
build up your thoughts who helps you
identify the things that
you have failed to acknowledge by
yourself and who just shares this
different perspective
on the table at the end of the day
all these ways boil down to that active
seeking of purpose
because i realized that my purpose
wouldn’t just descend in time while
wandering inside a void that i was stuck
in
and that the only way out was for me to
find my way and constant
search for a positive meaning out of my
circumstances
shifting my questions from why me
into what is in it for me
and upon having clarity of purpose day
by day i was able to find a beam of
light
in that void a light that is far away in
an
outstretched empty space and i realized
that as i go in small
steps further the light seems to be a
little more visible
but in order to fully grasp that light
i had to be willing to endure the second
p
the process the process involves a
series of actions that leads us to a
certain goal at the end
and some of the things that we must
really keep in mind about the process is
that
it is never instantaneous never smooth
sailing
and never really conforming to
repetitive actions from beginning to end
in my case the grieving process wasn’t a
staircase to the goal
because it wasn’t always progressive in
a way that
places me each step higher in time
it was more of an even process full of
twists and turns
days when i would feel better for a
while and then afterwards i would once
again
find myself sulking up in the reality
that my dad is no longer around
and i would feel worse again
whenever i would have some urgent iran’s
outside during those early times
i remember how it felt so new to me not
just because i’ve been stuck at home for
months
but mainly because of the idea that my
dad is no longer there
and i would shed a couple of tears in
the car as we pass through the streets
of the city
because i’d remember that it was him who
actually brought us here
so it was tough to ease that kind of
pain and longing
because almost every place and every
moment
reminded me of him
but just like any other process the
coping actions being done at the
beginning
shall not remain as it is throughout the
entire process
i remember during father’s day last year
i decided not to open any of my social
media accounts
at all because it would terribly hurt me
to see
father’s day greetings with the fresh
and the current situation that i was
going through
each one of us has different ways of
coping up
and so through trial and errors one must
be able to
dynamically adjust and see which coping
mechanisms worked
and what new ways can be done to handle
it better than before
this process complexity develops that
renewed perspective
resilience and character that leads us
to the final
element e
which stands for end goal
the end goal of the process the light
in that void this is the destination
that reinforces
your purpose it is the destination where
you
desire to see yourself after prevailing
the highest and lows
of the process and this
end goal for me was complete healing
and now finally having the courage to
open it up
and share it without breaking down
although the pain never really goes away
before i used to think of my dad then
i’d cry
but now i’m able to think of my dad and
still find joy
and gratitude and that has always been
what i wanted to achieve
i never thought that i would have to
experience firsthand some of those
unimaginable moments but it brings me
this
great sense of fulfillment to finally be
out of that void
and have gained a much higher level of
strength and wisdom that
i am able to share and uphold for myself
as i head on to the next process and to
the many
other processes that i would have to
face later on
friends this doesn’t solely apply to the
context of the grieving process
or to the context of the pandemic it is
essentially applicable in life
we may be familiar with these three
terms because it’s simple
and widely discussed in books and
articles
but oftentimes we tend to overlook them
collectively
because we only consider and pay
attention on an individual part
of these three elements and that is
where we fall short
we may have a process without having a
clear goal
or we may be undergoing a process
without having a purpose to go back to
when the process gets confusing and
rough
or perhaps we may have a certain goal
but we are not ready to fully commit to
the time
challenge and complexity of the process
all these three elements must always be
glued together
so whenever you were in a crisis or in a
tragedy
or simply in a position of wanting to
move forward in life
ask yourself three basic questions
first what are you working towards too
that is your end goal second
why are you doing it that is your
purpose
and third how will you get there
that is your process link them into a
powerful foundation that you would live
by every day
friends ppe technically stands
for personal protective equipment but it
may also mean
purpose process and
end goal three inseparable elements that
would carry us
covid19 and beyond
brace yourself by harnessing your ppe
thank you