Inspiration
Lina Ashar, Amish Tripathi & Raageshwari Redefine Lives Post-COVID in ScooNews Webinar
Report of the webinar hosted by ScooNews with the best-selling author Amish Tripathi & singer-turned-author Rageshwari to discuss Post-COVID expectations.
ScooNews hosted a webinar on 5th May 2020 moderated by Lina Ashar, Educationist, Author & Founder of Kangaroo Kids, on "Redefining Our Life Post-COVID-19."
The Live session featured Amish Tripathi, best-selling Author, Diplomat & Philanthropist, along with Raageshwari Loomba Swaroop, Bollywood Singer, Actor & Mindfulness Author for Penguin, ‘Building A Happy Family.’
This enlightening conversation was witnessed by 2000+ attendees, listening to the impressive experts discussing how their respective outlook regarding life has gotten transformed during the Coronavirus panic and what common practices they assume are going to be reconstructed post this lockdown.
With this webinar, ScooNews wants to remind you that a global crisis like this does not only affects lives in the physical form but also emotional and mental disturbances are inevitable. However, emerging stronger out of it is also bound to happen.
Commencing the session, Lina asked Raageshwari about coping up with the despair of facial paralysis that hit her years back when she was at the peak of her music career. No doubt, she was too young to be diagnosed with such a serious illness. The reason behind asking this personal question was simple – to comprehend one’s strength to overcome a dark phase in life and correlating that struggle with that of the present scenario.
To everyone’s surprise, Raageshwari stated she was glad to have encountered this obstacle for she believes it is from the darkest places in our lives that come most of our strength & mindfulness.
“My father has always maintained how meditation was a necessity for mind-control and self-awareness. It was meditation and finding the inner world that ultimately helped me during those difficult times. Challenges make the mind grow!”
She went on to say how one’s inner self can highly affect the external environment. Inevitably, to receive good things in life, we need to send good thoughts out into the Universe. “That’s the kind of connection you should thrive to create with oneself,” guided Raageshwari.
Lina next turned to Amish Tripathi and asked him if he thinks, one-day humanity could look back at this time without being re-traumatized by the COVID-19 crisis.
“Life is about how we react to what happens around us because certainly, we are not in control of what is happening every second.” Amish exemplified by referring to the Indian Dharmic ways that teach us how to react to things in a calm manner.
There are always many paths a society could take after such an event, however, it is significant to remember spirituality, traditional ways, community, liberalism & ethics. It is our glorious culture because of which we are able to gather the strength and stand by each other in every difficult situation and that is what we should remind ourselves of even while being stuck in the COVID-19 emergency, said Amish.
Focusing on the role of a guardian, Lina asked Raageshwari, who’s also a mother, how elders can maintain a stable mental state during a stressful situation so they can look after the child responsibly, without making it any more complex inside their homes or classrooms. “It is important to nurture yourself first in order to nourish a child,” replied Raageshwari.
She continued, “The level to which you want to expose your child to the seriousness of the crisis solely depends on the comprehension power of that child. Talking specifically about the teenagers, if we see older kids stressed during these times, it is apparently because they are repeatedly made to listen to negative words like pandemic, disease, death, etc. in their houses and/or during the online classes.”
According to the Mindfulness Author, giving attention to negativity leads to more negativity in our environment. To stay positive, one can conduct healthy discussions, read good books, and indulge in creative activities thereby, keeping the younger generation assertive at the moment. Teaching them to be positive, even in these dark times and the times yet to come is crucial, explained Raageshwari.
Giving the example of Buddha, she added that grief is the fundamental reality of life and one cannot escape it. “However, what sets you free is accepting it (the truth). This way of thinking will help you live life more productively and positively.”
On being asked what’s that one life-lesson she’s learnt while quarantined, Raageshwari answered, “To not waste time waiting for the crisis to get over and instead start working on myself right at this moment.”
ScooNews completely resonate with the Singer-turned-Writer’s words. Don’t try to rush into the future immediately, do not worry about the post-COVID-19 life too much. For now, focussing on adapting to the present is more important than being continuously worried about what will happen in a few months.
Stretching the thought further, Amish added, “What is happening now is essentially an evolution. The species that show the most resilience and make efforts to adapt physically or emotionally will survive.”
The author appealed to educators to teach young children the same. He also informed them, parents and guardians, to warn the young generation about the non-favourable situations they might encounter while realising their dreams in the future. “Let Corona-crisis prepare them for the future. Let them see how tough it can get. This is one of the best opportunities we could seize to train the next generation and lead them to the way forward,” he insisted.
To this, Raageshwari stated what elders can, in turn, learn from the young minds around them. She said, “Youngsters are actually the gurus of mindfulness themselves. It is us, the adults, who keep producing thousands of thoughts in a day, jumping from one to another in a jiffy and hence, losing the present. Children, on the other hand, are mindful already. They live in the moment and enjoy both happiness and sadness with equal intensity. That’s mindfulness and that’s courageous.”
In the end, Amish also highlighted the issues the tech-industry (educational, industrial, etc.) might possibly face post-COVID-19-crisis. “It shall boom,” he predicted. “There will be a significant change in lifestyle all around as people will try to live better, cleaner lives.”
He added, “There is a huge chance that the present era of globalisation will die, but India, being self-sufficient, can manage it well.”
According to these experts, India is all set to emerge stronger after the pandemic comes under control. The children will be more adaptable, resilient and sagacious, provided we remember to educate them to be more mindful, self-aware and optimistic. “It is time to teach more values than just academics, to tell them it is okay to fail but not okay to not try,” the panel said in chorus.