The ways to stay safe during this pandemic have been changing from time to time. In the beginning, we believed social distancing was the only way to stop the spread of the deadly virus. But now, we have slowly started to realize that it is not easy to eradicate this virus. With no hopes on the vaccine being available any time soon and so many things constantly changing around us, are we prepared enough to face this situation? Would the situation be in control after the rules by the government are relaxed? 

Considering the demographics of our country and the strategies for prevention and precautions made by the country for us as well as the nations sharing our borders are costing us enormously, but any cost is better than being dead, and right now our focus is on staying alive.

In India, we have seen many infectious diseases like malaria, dengue and chikungunya. For all of them, we knew that the carriers are mosquitoes so we took measures to exterminate the mosquitoes. But in the present condition, we are the carriers. For the virus to spread from one person to the other it needs another person in between so we need to understand that if that one in between is missing, the chain can be broken. To stay alive, we just have to keep our travelling shoes off for a little while.

It is not the time to panic but to be cautious. This just doesn’t mean for us to stay away from everyone but more importantly to be resilient and responsible. Responsible for oneself and society.

 

Firstly, we must show responsibility towards ourselves by keeping our body and mind healthy so that we are strong enough to face the virus and survive it. Since the virus targets the healthy cells in our lungs we must make sure to keep it away from our airway. Doing regular exercise has a profound effect on mental health and also helps in flushing out the bacteria out of lungs thereby improving our immunity. You can also practice some simple but powerful yogic processes such as kriya and pranayama to boost immunity and enhance lung capacity. Most importantly we must eat healthy food and take necessary proteins and vitamins to keep ourselves immune.

Next, we need to be responsible towards our family and our neighbourhood. We need to keep our homes and surroundings germ-free by disinfecting the contact areas such as doorbells, handles and rails. However, responsibility here is not just preventing germs but also helping our family members. Most importantly helping our mothers who are continuously working to keep the family happy and healthy. The least we can do for them is to divide and share the work.

 

Finally, we also have to be responsible towards society and obey the rules put up by the government. We need to help the needy and serve the community with all we can do while following the rules. This can include anything starting from sharing positive news, creating memes to make people laugh, making social distancing fun with video chats, checking on our elderly neighbours to volunteering our time to serve the country or raising funds. We need to make sure that we are not putting ourselves or anybody else at risk. We must live with this commitment until this is over. If we have a cough we need to stay away from others. This is not discrimination but common sense.

 

Right now, nature has thrown a deadly virus upon us. We don’t know when it will end. All we know is that it will probably not last forever. If it were a big giant, we would have fought it with bullets and missiles, but since the virus needs us for its transmission, all our efforts must be in the direction of forbidding our common foe to transmit and spread further. We must take this commitment seriously and be responsible. By doing so we can ensure that we will not be the carrier who would transmit the virus to another human being. 

If the virus comes to us, it must stop with us. This way, we are doing our community, city, country and the world a big favour. 

 

 

Refer to the links below to learn some simple but effective ways to keep yourself healthy during this pandemic. 

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lP1Y1bk1YgU, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TaIHIsfSyk)

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