When Miriam wrote her last article on the matter of the pandemic in January 2021, the optimist within her really wanted to believe that 2021 would be the end of the craziness. Who knew at the time we would still be in the midst of it as we approach 2022? Expat Choice invited Miriam - a well respected digital and social commentator, based in Singapore - to respond to what has become one of the most popular articles posted in 2021 - Miriam shares...
Vaccines offered the hope of a return to normality. Throughout the year, little windows of normal returned, only to be shut down time and again. These flirtations with freedom were all too fleeting as we pined to see our family and friends once more.
Differences of opinion about the vaccine and government policies caused sharp divisions that split families and friend groups. 2021 felt like a year to survive rather than thrive. We have been left weary and exhausted.
I made a conscious choice at the beginning of 2021 to surrender to it all. This was a challenge for someone like me who is very proactive and strategic in my decision making. But in surrender, I found calm and a new appreciation for the present. I realised that I could not control anything except for what I chose to release into the world. I set 2021 as my year to create, and that is exactly what I did.
Spending all year immersed in creativity, I delved into the Metaverse - an environment with no borders, where creators collaborate and push the limits of their imaginations. I found wonderful and brilliant people and we experimented with merging technologies with words, art and music. In the Metaverse, I found a community of optimists defying dystopia and creating a new way forward for humanity.
Creating became the elixir that eased my anguish at being separated from family and friends for two years. My journey into the Metaverse centred around the theme of Memory - an especially fascinating topic. As a collective we have all lost two years of memories that we desperately wanted to experience. We could not get to family celebrations. We have missed births, birthdays and weddings. And tragically, for many of us and our friends, we have missed funerals.
Yet, just when we thought we could breathe in the fresh, mask-less air following our double doses of vaccine and the resumption of international travel...OhMyGron.
Who knew that we would find ourselves in December 2021 gingerly tip-toeing towards the end of year and bracing ourselves to do it all again with a new variant in 2022?
For those who need to control all aspects of their lives, this pandemic has proven extremely hard to deal with. We cannot make future plans with any certainty. Then again, could we ever? Life is a gift. If you are reading this, you are one of the fortunate people. We are alive today and that is all that is ever guaranteed.
I found that having "a word" for the year channelled my energy in a positive way. It was more about self-preservation - a way to get focused and preserve my mental health. I surrendered to creativity, I flowed with it. I replaced the memories I wanted (and expected to have) in 2021 with new and unexpected ones. I'm still thinking about what my word will be in 2022.
As a writer and avid conversationalist, words are my world. One of the things I noticed this year was that our vocabulary shrank. We became those people who only talk about the weather. The weather in this case is the pandemic storm raging outside. Sadly, we stopped talking so much about the far bigger danger - our climate.
I found some days that all I talked about was case numbers, a plethora of acronyms from ART, PCR, WFH, SHN. People are PAX and our lives became ruled by how many pax we were allowed to interact with on a daily basis. Our conversations were overtaken by the pandemic dictionary. As a parent, is was especially worrying, as we bombarded our children with these doom-filled words, compounding the stress they already feel about climate change, their identities and their futures.
If I have learnt one major thing in this pandemic it is that we need to equip ourselves with the tools to become and remain mentally and physically strong.
We cannot control the virus or how it will behave in 2022. We cannot control how governments around the world will react or how their decisions will disrupt our plans and dreams.
We can, however, control our levels of stress with the nutrition we put in our bodies, the exercise we do, our daily spiritual practices. And sleep...lots of quality sleep.
We can control how much effort we put into sharpening our minds and learning new things. And most importantly, we can control the love, kindness and compassion we direct to those around us, and offer it in abundance. In 2022, I’m committing to dialling it all up.
I am certain of one thing, however. I do not want to be writing another article like this one in December 2022. May we all stay strong, healthy and alive. Blessings to you all.
Miz Feiler is a creative entrepreneur, keynote speaker and writer based in Singapore. She speaks on collaboration, personal empowerment, next generation technologies and small business.
More Here https://linktr.ee/MizFeiler
