CORONAVIRUS

Coronavirus as a Calling

by Gregg Levoy

Not to diminish the fact that we’re distraction are sidelined, parts of us that are dealing with a serious and worldnormally overshadowed may be given an wide epidemiological threat, the pandementrance cue—not just projects we’ve backic can be transmuted into golden opporburnered in deference to the daily grind, tunities, especially if we follow the somebut deeper thoughts and feelings about our times blind spiritual instinct that tells us priorities, the status quo, work/life (im) this crisis—indeed each of our individual balance or our inner life. The better part of lives—has purpose and meaning, and that valor and wisdom may lie in asking, “What we need to act on this impulse despite can I learn here?” rather than, “How can I the temptation to back down and run for overcome this?” cover. Here are four ways to respond to the call of these turbulent times: Consider it a powerful meditation.Meditation teachers tell us that distractions Use it as a reset. For months, it has been imaren’t obstacles, they are the meditation, so possible to conduct busyness-as-usual, and that we say to ourselves, “Ah, the dog-bark we may be left with unaccustomed time on meditation,” or “Ah, the weed-whacker our hands. But like the asteroid that ushered meditation.” The same with the coronaviout the dinosaurs and gave the mammals rus. Approach it not just as a distraction underfoot a shot at prominence, once the from our goals and how it can block our thunder lizards of everyday busyness and intentions, but as a vehicle of meditation it

Appreciate it as connective tissue in soci

ety. We’re seeing firsthand how our individual actions can affect those around us, for better and for worse, and that we depend on one another for survival. Washing our hands and sheltering in place are acts of both self-care and community care. In the weeks following 9/11 when the fiction of our invulnerability was so shockingly revealed, many of us began holding doors open for strangers, spending more time with our kids, honking less and listening more. Life’s fragility, our fragility, woke us up to our need for each other. Now that social isolation is suddenly forced on us, it reminds us how precious those connections are.

Approach it as a reminder of mortality. The pandemic is a perfect opportunity to practice the fine and fearsome art of non-attachment, because life will ultimately ask us to surrender everything. “We all owe God a death,” Shakespeare wrote. We can use this time to clarify what’s important and how to best use our precious nick of time. When we strip ourselves of any illusions of immortality, we are thus free to live our lives to the fullest.

Gregg Levoy is the author of Callings: Finding and Following an Authentic Life and Vital Signs: The Nature and Nurture of Passion, and a regular blogger for Psychology Today. Learn more at GreggLevoy.com.