1. Stuck At Home:
How many of us have heard the terrible stories about what happened to children from abused homes who were forced to stay there during the pandemic? It was a horrible side effect of the crisis, indeed. If you search online, you will get pages and pages and pages of results. That problem will not be cured by research papers—it is a much deeper issue, and we certainly should seek to change it. But did you see any news headlines or stories about the families who grew closer because schools and offices were closed and families were granted a fantastic amount of time to be together? Of course, you haven't.
I could not find a single publication that wrote a positive story about this aspect of the "lockdown," but I can guarantee it happened. Many families took lemons and made lemonade in this predicament. Bonds were forged, parents spent more time with their kids, and as a result …, they started paying attention to what they were learning, bringing me to the next positive from the pandemic.
2. The Homeschool revolution and parents more involved in learning.
Before the pandemic, I helped my kids with their homework, but I honestly had no idea what lesson plans were being taught in my children's classroom. I am not alone. Virtual learning changed all of this. All over the country, parents took a highly active role in their kids' education, and in many cases, they didn't like what they saw. If parents couldn't create a homeschool environment for their kids, they went to school board meetings and got involved. Tell me that you haven't seen a massive uptick in parents getting involved at a hyperlocal level with education. You can't. We saw mama bears at meetings, curriculum changes, and parents running for school board. All over the country, parents have stepped up and decided they wanted a say in what was being taught to their children. It has been met with much resistance, but we are winning this one. If you are a parent in a situation like this, I would love to read your story. Feel free to email us; we will consider sharing these anonymously with the public if you wish.
And then there is homeschooling. For many, it used to be a dirty word, with parents thinking those kids were the ones who couldn't socialize properly and were always alone. The COVID pandemic created an environment where parents learned what homeschooling actually was. Take a look at the increase in just the first year.
Many employers' shift to a virtual workplace enabled parents to homeschool their kids, which brings me to the next positive—What do I really want out of life?
3. Reassessing Priorities:
During the pandemic, people had more time to think…about everything. And many of them realized they didn't want to be a slave to an office job, driving back and forth in traffic each day only to come home exhausted at 7 PM. The pandemic granted a lot more free time and flexibility. Executives re-evaluated how many meetings they needed and whether they were causing a lack of productivity for their teams. Employees had more time to start their passion project and look within. Many of them quit jobs they had for years, and many others stayed in those jobs but took the plunge and started to work toward that passion project.
It didn't necessarily need to be a source of income for them. But I know so many people who took it upon themselves to start writing, painting, crafting, building, or taking a lunch break to sit in nature. It caused a strengthening of one's faith and a deep look within. It caused many, many people to ask the question, "Why am I here? What am I doing, and why am I doing it?" And with the reassessment of their priorities came the ultimate revelation for many—I am free.
4. Health Freedom:
There is no doubt that the COVID pandemic has demonstrated with clarity what governments think about your personal sovereignty. Their oversized actions when it came to speech and autonomy over your body caused an absolute revolution in personal freedom. The mere thought of mandatory injections sent many to their breaking point. "What am I willing to accept, and what else have they done?" They began looking. And behind every newly minted health freedom advocate is someone who had never taken the time to care or explore more. Inherently, the attempted stifling of that which you have total control as an individual – your bodily autonomy – caused an uprising in this country and around the world. And as the stone was tossed into the relatively calm pond, the ripple effect went far beyond a mere wave. It became a tsunami. Which led people to…
5. Re-evaluating Their Doctors:
This is a big one. For decades, many have trusted their doctors. But the pandemic and the lack of early treatment, coupled with the reaction to those attempting to provide it, was just what was needed to break the spell. People taught themselves how to heal. No amount of government propaganda could stop them. As a result, people are now interviewing their doctors instead of being the other way around. Have more than two genders on your intake forms? Require vaccination? Say that ivermectin is horsepaste? For many people worldwide, these are signs of a doctor who has become an automaton, not treating the person but reading from a manual.
This also caused people to evaluate the hospitals they would visit for treatment. The curtain was pulled back on some of the treatment practices. People learned how to advocate for themselves and what they will and will not accept. I am not making any bold predictions about the state of the hospital systems in this country, but I will say this – they will be forced to change, eventually, or meet their demise.
COVID caused Americans and many around the world to re-evaluate where their dollars are going when it comes to medical insurance. They learned about the "business" of medicine. More people sought after doctors who were vocal and loud in the face of the government cudgel and their recommendations. They learned how large conglomerates had taken over the healthcare industry. From this, the small-town doctor now has a real shot at making a comeback, as does the self-pay model. It has also led more people to wellness, the next stop on this journey.
6. More People Are Paying Attention to Their Wellness Than Ever Before
There is an absolute explosion of people turning to diet, exercise, and natural wellness to heal rather than placing a band-aid over the wound that was their ailment. More people are cutting sugars from their diet and feeding themselves wholesome foods. More people are searching for functional medicine specialists and turning to natural medicine using plants, supplements, and food to heal their bodies. Along with this has come a return to faith for many. Meditation and prayer have taken a front seat. With more knowledge and the inherent desire to be well again, more people are turning within and removing themselves from the system. More and more will continue. People are remembering the truth of who they really are, embracing it, and making concrete changes to allow that to grow. Join hands with them. Lift those with the loudest voices, for they make it comfortable for the meeker to speak out.
We are witnessing the awakening of human beings to what they always knew was true but were conditioned to forget. And while we have much further to go, the lightbulb from the above is very bright because it comes from within. Once you see it, you cannot unsee it. Once you know, you cannot not know. Just take a moment to extrapolate further from the brief points I made above. If we all continue to focus on these inherent human tenets—personal freedom, bodily autonomy, family, faith, and prayer, we may be able to reinvent ourselves in the way we wish to see. The beginning of this is happening now, and we should continue nourishing it to thrive. The pandemic was terrible in many ways, but we absolutely cannot, and should not, turn a blind eye to the good that came out of it. Our attention to this will continue to allow it to thrive. And that, my friends, is what we should be focused on.