Influential Lessons I Learned After An Arduous Break
An inevitable pandemic-offered break of 500 days can literally get you there.
This pandemic has been much excruciating. It took away millions of lives, jobs, opportunities, and hopes too. But it has also brought in an opportunity for nerds like me, who were packing their bags to join a rat race.
After high school, I was supposed to join a good university which didn’t happen because I had to wait a lot for the series of quarantines to stop.
Living in an arduous-lonely quarantine resulted in stress and depression. But sooner people started reflecting upon it, which forced me to ponder the purpose of taking such a long break and its benefits.
Undoubtedly, I can acknowledge today that this break has resulted in an opportunity for me to explore other aspects of my life and find out what’s better for me. It has also taught me the lessons that I couldn’t expect being in a rat race.
After this break of more than 500 days from things like assignments, surprise tests, exams, school friends, games, fun, etc., I’ve learned a bit of influential and eye-opening lessons.
For the obvious reasons, the massive changes that I’m adapting today couldn’t have been possible without this break. And I firmly believe each of us must take a break from everything as it would help you reflect upon the mere self for better self-understanding.
Learn to Leave The Comfortable Cacoon Earlier
Being in a certain fixed routine for years, many students get used to it even after leaving school. And it becomes (kind of) a comfort zone. Apart from playing and studying, students don’t fascinate indulging in other things immediately after leaving school.
When I left my school, I literally planned to enjoy my whole academic years in college. I thought that was the time I meant to be doing fun and stuff. But I realized my comfort zone acted as termites, eating my brain and making me unproductive and uncommunicative.
Nurturing my comfort zone, I grew shy, passive and ignorant. It wasn’t helping much.
Taking such a long break, I was intensely reflecting upon if I was merely passing my time in a comfortable cocoon, making myself intensely dull and void from inside. I thought, what if it never ends because pandemic is not going to go sooner than my expectations.
If I don’t leave the habits that I’ve been nurturing since my school days and start working on myself, I will never have the option despite being in a rat race. Because living in the comfortable cocoon:
- I wouldn’t be able to look upon various opportunities to grab
- I might be unable to discover my true self
- I might miss the chance to learn things out of scope
You literally can’t explore more things being in that comfortable cocoon, can you? You would only find limitations in opportunity and boundless obstacles to pass by. Thankfully, I realized the purpose of taking that break isn’t to make the cocoon shinier and glittery.
Learn to Embrace The Power of Solitude for Better Self-understanding
In the stage where we start realizing the material and essence of this world, we get surrounded by doubts, confusion, discomforts, and more.
The major discomforts, doubts, and confusion generate when there’s a lack of self-understanding.
You see, when there was complete lockdown in the utmost country, very few people were fortunate to praise the power of solitude. The majority of the people were traumatized, stressed, and depressed.
Many people perceived these lockdowns as the punishment of loneliness and temporary separation from their loved ones. Other self-conscious people reflected massively upon the power of solitude for stemming peace and replenishing themselves with positive energy.
I realized pandemic was a part of my life, and I need not separate it but adjust according to that environment. I should not miss the opportunity to embrace the power of solitude and learn to analyze my thoughts, behaviour, and actions in that calming environment.
Taking a break and analyzing myself through introspection, I found the below question moved me the most.
- Are you doing the things you were meant to be doing?
- Are you happy with the only life you’re living today?
- Are you getting enough out of what you invested in for years?
The above questionnaire helped me reflect on myself. Not only vanished my doubts that were holding me much behind, but also they gave me crystal insights into solitude and isolation.
“There is a difference between solitude and isolation. One is connected, and one isn’t. Solitude replenishes, isolation diminishes.” — Henry Cloud.
Perceive Your Vicinity to Structure Your Environment
Today we have extravagant reasons to get spoiled in stuff that isn’t meant for our wellbeing anyhow. A Netflix show, blind scrolling, and a person to chat with is far enough to make you feel you don’t need anything else to have the most out of life.
Those aren’t the things that actually help you move on in life. However, they can help you pass the time. And this is what I realized lately.
A few lifeless stuff controls a massive part of our life inadvertently, and those things make us forget what’s in front of us. We forget to appreciate the presence of people and things in front of us and text another person to confess or desire the things that we don’t have.
By doing so, we mess with the environment that we live in.
And I needed to organize that to make my life the way I wanted and not the way lifeless stuff designed it. So I took a really long break to calm down and let things still backstage.
Perceiving my vicinity, I figured out what’s not working for me and how may I change to revitalize. Today I flew 1000 miles away from my comfort zone to start something new and give my life a shot of transformation to bring about some adventure.
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