Push your limits

It all began with my younger brother who was hospitalised for a non-Covid related condition. He started showing symptoms of Covid (high fever and coughing) in a hospital. That’s when doctors sprang into action and prescribed all possible medicines to combat the virus. When he was discharged on the 25th of April, I took care of him and had my mother who is 70 plus and diabetic, go and stay with my sister. We stayed in separate rooms, I washed my hands regularly and I invested in an expensive N95 mask which I wore whenever I went out of my room.

But I was filled with anxiety that I too would contract the virus from my brother and if that were to happen how would we manage? Despite all the precautions I took, I began having sudden unexplained dips in my energy and started coughing. My brother still had his fever and a cough, and I thought I must have got the infection too. Still, I went about shopping for essential items with a mask on. I had no choice.

For a fitness freak like me who cycles and maintains a strenuous fitness regime, Covid was always the last thing on my mind. I take care of my physical and mental fitness; I do about 2000 to 2500 skips on a jump rope and an hour of Vipassana meditation religiously every day. Besides, I had also had my first shot of Covaxin. Even though there were some mild after-effects  - I didn’t have the energy to do my skipping -  I made sure I continued my one-hour regime of mediation.

The best thing to do in confinement was to meditate and keep myself calm.

During my meditation, I was able to get rid of the fears and anxiety associated with Covid (this was the time when people were dying because of the oxygen shortage in Delhi). I also felt that I was able to regulate my breathing, which gave me the feeling that my worries about my breathing difficulties were more mental than real. Vipassana meditation trains us to come back to the breath, whenever a thought or a worry arises in the mind. It teaches us to come back, live and focus on the present.

After few days of low energy, I pushed myself to get back to my regular skipping practice. I slowly started pushing my limits and soon crossed 3000 skips a day. I was telling my body and my mind. I am stronger than Covid. The ability to push my physical limits gave me the belief that I was stronger than the virus. The sudden unexplained dips in my energy level continue but I don’t let it bother me. I just rest when that happens. I have been doing 5000 plus skips for the past few days and continue my meditation practice. I have never got myself tested for Covid but I now think the worst is over and my body has overcome the virus.

My encounter with Covid taught me that many a time, we can train ourselves to overcome physical and mental adversity because the physical and the mental are closely intertwined. I think recovering from Covid or any other illness is challenging but it does not have to be a nightmare; with regular mental training and physical activity, we can make it easier. A lot of times the mental suffering is created by our minds, our thought and our fears which are often in our subconscious. These affect our physical health.