Storms bring rainbows, rough seas become calm waters.

I'm sure most of us have had some form of a COVID-19 related lockdown or what I'm calling a "slow down" in the last couple of weeks or months. I'm moving into day 11 in beautiful Cape Town, South Africa, and have had some time to reflect during this time of uncertainty, hope, and stillness...

When last were you able to play soccer with your son while working at home during lunch? When last did you not go to a kid's party on the weekend? When last did you watch two butterflies fly above you? When last did you stop and watch the clouds go above you? When last did you watch your children playing lego? When last did you blow your vuvuzela at 8 pm to celebrate our heroes? When last did you watch your children doing their first e-learning classroom session? When last did you save valuable time and money not sitting in traffic...it's dangerous driving your car too you know!

We need to be grateful for the small things in life even more now during this time of global slow down.

Times are changing very quickly before our eyes. No-one predicted this and even if someone did the world was too busy being busy to react. I'm sure this has your attention now...

The quicker we can accept this new reality given to us, the greater chance we have to thrive in the new world unfolding every minute. Some years there will be no change and then all of a sudden in a few days everything changes. It is scary and I'm full of deep sympathy and compassion for all who continue to be affected by this global pandemic. I'm also fearful of the future but if we look a little deeper we must see some positives from this...

Just like one-third of the world's population has been "forced" into lock-down so too Nelson Mandela was forced into his own form of solitude for 27 years. Yes, we cannot compare his full experience I know, but look at how humble, peaceful, forgiving and compassionate he was towards the world when he came out of his forced isolation. Can we take something from this?

The world needs this "humanity reset" not only for us now to awaken to a higher level of consciousness but also for our children and nature's future. It is very sad it's taking so many deaths for us to be forced to reflect on what we are doing to the world and where our sense of purpose and success is driven from.

A few days before 56 million South Africans went into the national lockdown I saw something that gave me hope while out doing my routine daily exercises. Early in the morning, there was a sense of stillness in the air, a sense of the unknown, a sense of what might the future hold for me. A light warm wind blowing; Then there was a silver lining in the sky and from this, I took great hope.

The media has hardcoded us to thrive off sensationalism and negative news in order to fuel their agenda's and profits. We all need to be mindful that although COVID-19 is very serious and is causing a lot of fear, uncertainty, and sadness, we all have the biggest powers of all within us to defeat this together as a global community. This is where your mindset and health-set plays a critical role in turning this situation around. Through these challenges, we grow and through growth, we continuously improve as humans. Sometimes the only way to grow is through suffering. Many before us have had very similar if not more dramatic life-changing events that they have survived through.

"If it's possible that our thoughts can make us sick, is it then possible that our thoughts can make us well? The answer is absolutely yes." Dr. Joe Dispenza (Neuroscientist)

During an interview I listened to during this time with one of my favorite mindset influencers, Tom Bilyeu, Dr. Brewer (Behavioral Neuroscientist) spoke about how to break the coronavirus anxiety cycle. The majority of the fear and panic feelings are being driven by viral contagion/ideas that spiral out of control very often shared on social media or other media. This then causes mass fear, uncertainty and ultimately planning what I need to do, which leads to deep worry. He says the secret is to build a deep level of awareness and consciousness around your thoughts and behaviors which can lead to calmer inner states of being.

Eight of his tips below:

1. Identify how our minds take us to situations and experiences that will never actually happen.
2. As yourself; what am I getting from worrying?
3. Hug a pet.
4. Read books and connect with the character in the book as this builds connection.
5. Have regular video calls with friends, family, and colleagues and turn your video on.
6. Take it hour by hour, day by day and plan for tomorrow as it comes.
7. Daily meditation.
8. Protect yourself during this time and turn off social media notifications.

Another key to remember during this time is that this is all happening for us and not to us, the universe has given us a forced global retreat to take a step back and be more present, resourceful and compassionate.

“Being still is where really great insights come from. This is also where happiness comes from. You know, it's hard to be happy and appreciate and feel gratitude, when you're just moving all the time.” Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy.

Another key take out from the slow down period for me has been around the power of hope and that in the hope you can be fearless. You can release fear and anxiety with hopefulness. This leads to building inner self-trust which therefore means you can trust in life because you trust in yourself to get through anything that life passes us.

Building my level of hope is this thought; Just take a step back now, and imagine we were experiencing this global epidemic 100 or even 200 years ago? We are so much more prepared to deal with this than we think based on innovative technologies being used to help the global response. Here are some examples of just how this is happening across multiple countries globally; 3D printing, Apple COVID-19 App, TeleMedicine, AI chatbots, humanoid robots, Drones, Videoconferencing usage, Cloud & SaaS adoption, Cybersecurity adoption for WFH would not have been possible just 10 years ago.

The four "C values" I'm taking as positives out of the COVID-19 global awakening;

Compassion - this is the future of work; Jobs of compassion. We will all need to re-align to our true value, self-awareness and decide what our success looks like. It does not always need material things. Dr. Kai Fu Lee's point in his book "AI for Superpowers" where he talks about creating Jobs of Compassion for the future as the machines will do all the factory work, so humans need to elevate their love, compassion, and humanity. The Era of AI is being forced upon us quicker now with COVID-19 which increases the pressure on us all to decide out path.

Community - even in my own housing complex I can feel a sense of "we are in this together" we will beat this. This is the power of resilience together, we are stronger as one.

Courage - we all need to show courage at this time, be brave and stay positive.

Camaraderie - there seems to be a global togetherness amongst all forms of society including different nation-states, Governments, Public and Private sectors. This can also be experienced within companies at the moment where all teams are having to share more and lead through this time of fear and uncertainty and all move in the same common direction to survive.

Remember that in every situation in our lives we have three choices; Accept it, change it or resist it. You and only you have the power to decide how you react.

Be safe, healthy and stay positive!! Thank you to all my family, friends, colleagues, customers and technology partners for their support during this time. A very special thank you to all the healthcare authorities you are amazing and massive respect and gratitude.