As of 8 May 2020, the Government of the Republic of Indonesia has reported 13.112 persons with confirmed COVID-19. There have been 943 deaths related to COVID-19 reported and 2.494 patients have recovered from the disease. Indonesia is in a tough spot now because Covid-19 affect every part of our lives.
For me personally it’s a hard time to just stay at home, can’t meet many people, can’t go to many places. I am tired of feeling bored. I feel so lonely sometimes and felt worried about many things. I can't even plan many things for the future because we don’t know when this pandemic will be end. This uncertainity is killing me. I am angry on this situation but at the end I can’t do anything. I hate this feeling and it began to kill my hope little by little. And without Hope I can’t survive in the midst of this pandemic, in this war.
So, how to keep our hope alive in the midst of this pandemic? Let’s learn together.
1. Grow our Friend Group – Even from home
We can’t survive alone, we need an encouraging community especially in this condition. So how do we do that? Start by being a friend. We want to have a friend who will encourage us, then become an encourager. Want friends who will help us grow as a person? Then practice listening, and show that we’re willing to change when we learn new things. Whatever we want to see in others, work towards becoming that friend ourselves.
Start praying for others everyday. Take time to pray for ourself and for friends. When we pray regularly for other people, our emphathy and concern for them grows. Then when our emphaty to other grows it will grow our hope too. We get a hopeful life when we give impact for other’s lives.
Start having honest conversations. Relationship are built on both dirrections trust. Being open about our condition to our friends. Being honest when we need help. But not only about us. Ask a lot of questions, actively listen and don’t judge.
2. Stay positive
It’s important to stay positive if we want to keep our hope alive. Become positive is not only having positive thingking but more than that. It means we keep on believing God in this situation. Become positive means don not live by what we see. Become positive means choosing not to listen too much on bad news.
Let's practice ourselves to think about many good things that happened in this pandemic. Even just small thing, try to write it. for me, I am grateful because in the middle of this pandemic my family and I became closer. We have more communication than before. Also I have more time to do a new thing like baking. I do enjoy doing that activity. There are still many good things in our lives. Be grateful and stay positive.
3. Be productive
Having passion and try to make it come thru will make us living this life with full of hope. Also when we lose our passion we are starting to lose our hope too. In the midst of this pandemic let’s see this time as an opportunity to be more productive. We have a lot of time to stay at home. Use our time wisely. Try to make schedule or to do list everyday. Being productive is not about how many things you do but about how effective you are. When we do some things to reach our goals, we are productive. If you feel lazy or just want to spend a lot of time doing nothing just remind yourself to not waste your time. Try to do your hobby, explore or improve your talent. Produce something useful according to your passion and goals.
Remember this: The more we are grateful for our lives the more we are productive. when we become productive it grows our hope. And when our hope grows we can SURVIVE.
Let us survive together my friends.. Covid – 19 is not for forever... Photographs by Daniel Pangaribuan.
I would love to hear similar stories to share and strengthen. Or please let me know if you have questions, comments or input. Don't hesitate to write down your comments. Thank you for reading and visiting this blog :)