Is the New Normal really New?

Pre or post #pandemic, humanity remains driven by its emotions. These are mostly compulsive and it's the fundamental human struggle of choosing between compulsion or liberation.

The #newnormal will be hyper in its nature. 

Survivors will be hyper about their Survival

Instincts will flare up. Emotions will run at an all time high. Conflicts - both inner and external will enhance. The Maslow Pyramid’s Physiological, Safety, Love & Belongingness and Self Esteem will be the key drivers for Survivors amongst us.

A flared up hyper survival will get driven by our compulsive emotions like fear, comparison, competitiveness, approvals, validations, need to prove our worth, anxiety, attention, depression, and more.

This hyper survival will be displayed in the following four ways:

1. Those of us who are driven by Logic and Justification will make our heads spin trying to justify all our feelings and thoughts. We would want answers till we either find them or hit our life fatigue. We will cite data, numbers, analysis, history and find some solace as well as some way forward through this mental process. Living with these compulsions, we remain mentally occupied and keep evaluating situations, other people, their behaviours and keep justifying our convictions while at our core we live in fear of our survival! Desperate to find a way!
2. Those driven by a tendency for Escape will find places to hide. Paralysed by fear, will we be confused about venturing out at all or not? We will display a tendency to listen more favourably to those who advise absolute precaution. We would not want to take any decision at all. We will eventually let others decide for us and then blame it on them. Most of our time would be spent on hiding under the covers of books, watching TV, social media, even spirituality! To know ourselves, we just need to be aware of our Intent. Our truth must be known to us, at least!
3. Those of us who have a tendency for Denial will display an amazing bravado. Our age and health condition won’t matter. We will simply deny the very existence of this threat. Religion, Gods, belief system, philosophy of Life, spirituality, the impermanence of life, the perennial flow of life, or such arguments will drive our denial of the pandemic or its implications. “We have to learn to live with it”. "I am not going to be a coward”. “I have to ensure the Economy goes on”, etc, are the kind of statements that are crossing our minds already. We wish to wish-away the bleeding truth and this is our way of coping and acceptance.
4. The most amazing are those of us who have a tendency of Aggression. Setting new goals, finding new opportunities, making the best of our talents, surviving against all odds, getting our grit, determination and focus around us to sail through it all will be at display. We will be more aggressive about our products, services, convictions, beliefs. Our need for survival will be at its peak. It's easy to find us out. Our comments on most posts will be about our products, services, intent to expand our customer base. An intent of selling our products will be clearly displayed even in a comment we make to any unrelated post.
5. The #newnormal for survivors will not be much different. Our suffering will continue to increase. Our struggle will continue to increase. Our Life will keep slipping away. Our attempts at building our houses of cards will continue with greater zeal. Our relationships will continuously fragment. Our mental health will continue to deteriorate. Our mind will keep coming up with new and innovative schemes to survive and we will continue to fail at these attempts of survival. 

Why? Because Survival is not the nature of this creation!

The #newnormal will also create hyper evolution for those of us who are living for Self Actualisation (Ref: Maslow’s Pyramid). Our ability to overcome the compulsions of our emotional drivers can be honed to perfection at a time when these emotions will surge and display their presence in our lives. For example, when I experience fear of any sort during this pandemic that I believed had been overcome or resolved by me in the past. This incident will tell me my truth, my reality. This will now form the raw material for my evolution.

And during this time, if I remain honest, real, sensitive and receptive to my own feelings, there is a lot that can be processed for my evolution.

Life is a choice for those who choose to rise above our compulsive need for survival

Any amount of business, wealth, success, fame, honour, intelligence, awards, rewards, approvals, homes, cars, love, care, sex, health, security or possessions do not satisfy the deep insatiable and involuntary emotional aspects of Physiological, Safety, Love & Belongingness or Self Esteem needs. So long as fulfilment of these survival needs is our key driver, we do not Self Actualise.

And when we choose to Self Actualise, we not only fulfil these survival needs, we go beyond….. way beyond. Conscious people are Self Driven not compulsively driven.

The post #COVID19 #newnormal requires us to pick up our choice. Else, all this will be for nothing.