The reason behind it

Hi everyone! I hope you are well and safe in this midst of this pandemic. I have been working from home for the past 3 weeks and feel grateful and blessed that even though my routine has changed due to this COVID-19 pandemic, at least I am still able to do what I usually do (read: work). Then, it got me thinking, why do I do what I usually do?

Because of this pandemic, everything in your life is changing whether you like it or not. We can't live our lives the same way as we used to do. From social distancing, staying at home, self-quarantine, and all the other effort and precaution to help flatten the curve, all of these are somehow separating us from one another. You can't go out to meet your friends at your favorite spot and you can no longer have that Saturday brunch with your mains since all restaurants are only open for takeaways (at least that is what's happening here in Australia).

You’ll find yourself start thinking “I can't do what I usually do, so what should I do now?” To be honest, in this era, it is not hard to find things that we can do when we are at home, the internet offers us so many things that can entertain us while we're at home - YouTube, Netflix, Instagram, Facebook, etc... 

Some of us might take this opportunity to catch up on that Netflix series that everyone is talking about or playing games. Not saying that there's anything wrong about it, but since we are not doing our routine anymore, we are trying to fill in that extra time that we have by doing what is easy and fun to do. And while we use our extra time at home doing what we find fun, life keeps ongoing.

While this #StayAtHome movement is a good time for us to catch up on what we have been slacking, I think it is also a good time for us to reflect. Once too often we find ourselves trapped in a routine where we do not know why we are doing what we are doing. Although I'm sure when we first started doing what we were doing - which then become our routine - we had a clear intention and a clear vision in our head of why we are doing it. But after a while, a year or two later, we forgot the reason why.

The scary thing is, once we are in an autopilot mode, we did not realise it. We keep on going as if it is the normal thing that needs to be done. The activity that we carried out loses its meaning as you forgot the reason why you are doing it. Now that we have the time to break that chain of routine, why don’t we reflect on the things that we have been doing lately? Why do we do them? What was your intention? What do you want to achieve by doing it?

Intention is not the same with Goals btw. Intention is more like the reason why you have a certain goal in the first place. For example, my intention of creating this blog space is to share my thoughts and use this site to reflect on things and shared it so if I ever faced with a similar situation, I can use my reflection that I have shared here to advise my future self to handle the situation better. While that is my intention of starting this blog, my goal is to publish 1 piece of reflection per month. As you can see, I’m not good at keeping up with the goal bit, but when I rethink and look back why did I start this blog space, I get my act together and start typing. 

Sure, maybe your focus has shifted or maybe things that used to be important have become something less important for you now and other things have taken your priority. But at least by reflecting on our actions and remember the reason why we are doing it, we can re-adjust our routine to meet our current/new goal. We should always check in our self on what is our goal, and what do we do, are we still doing what will fulfill our intention? 

Let’s start doing things will full intention. Whether it’s a daily activity, religious activity, working out, even the smallest little thing that you do, let’s do it with our full intention. Not only it will give your activity more meaning, but it will also give us a feeling of accomplishment since we know why we did what we did. Plus, reflection is key to grow guys! (well, of course, it has to be followed by plans and actions afterward but I mean reflecting is step #1). Well, folks, that’s my two cents for today, hope you enjoyed this reflection that I got from getting ready for my first day of working from home. Mkbye! Stay healthy and safe peeps, and don’t forget to keep up your awesomeness. 

PS: As I mentioned before, this blog page is open for everyone who wants to collaborate, simply hit me up on my Instagram @jessicaay98 or send me an email. Let’s share your reflection and let’s keep on building each other up, and learn from one another <3. Mkbye!