How Yoga Helped In Lockdown Time Around The World For Common Man?
Hi everyone am writing this post to my friend Yogi, which he told he is going to publish in his blog site. I would like to share my experiences with giving a small intro about me. Myself Bhakti Pal, have been living in UAE since 2012, working in the hospitality industry.
I am from West Bengal, India. Here all my experiences divided into two phases before lockdown and after lockdown. I am gonna give you a total idea of How Yoga Helped In Lockdown Time Around The World For Common Man? like me.
Table of Contents
A Bit of Intro Before Lockdown
Life was going as usual. Only we were watching the news on the mobile about this Covid-19 pandemic and from the government safety precautions announced almost daily basis. But so far I was not serious about this virus. Everybody was spending their daily life as normal.
Initial Stage of Covid-19 Pandemic in UAE
It was a scary when covid-19 positive case found the first time in UAE. People started to take some precautions to avoid being infected by this covid-19 pandemic. Social distancing, wearing musk, and frequent hand washing are the primary steps.
Out breaking of this virus affected our daily life in many ways. Now at this stage, everyone started to store their essential and non-essential things as per their capacity. Everywhere people were just talking about this new challenging time and planning how to survive amidst of this circumstance.
Change in Job Environment
Now at this moment, my job environment changed, there some new rules and regulations implemented by the management. Our restaurant business went down and amid coronavirus environment, it was a very big challenging time for the management to protect all the employees. Every day there was a briefing taken by our boss.
I am feeling pretty much mentally stuck while writing about this lockdown experience as NRI here in Dubai where I stay. A situation faced by the whole world which couldn’t come in the wildest dream for me ever. Also what most of the countries are facing and got affected by the lockdown worldwide.
Fear of Losing Job
 Many of us are fearing loss of job, some of us have already seen pay cuts in private companies.  Almost for everyone — The Covid-19 pandemic become a monster disaster and the unending lockdown has left everyone feeling anxious and worried about our future.
I am spending in Dubai (one of the top cost places of the world) for the last 8 years and maintaining finance is becoming a severe issue for all of us.
Whether one would have the job or not is not entirely in one’s control but how to manage whatever finances one has got right now is something in one’s own hand. So, spending smartly is one of the important issues of the lockdown experience of a common man.
The Second Phase after Lockdown Experience
It was announced by the Government from 20th March effectively. This phase was a little challenging, away from the job and suddenly everything closed down. Initially, it seemed like a movie scene everything like an illusion Coronavirus Pandemic is totally a different experience.
Lockdown Starts
Now finally we were all locked at our home, we could step out only for emergency purposes like buying medicines or buying groceries. After a few days, the Government started the sterilization programmed.
For me, the first few days’ life was going well like it was my vacation period. But when the days had been going forward the things actually started to change. As our company’s door was shut down during this pandemic the management again changed their mind to cut off our pay role. The management made a new agreement for all of us in this time phase they reached on the decision to pay only 60 % salary.
Lockdown Experience of My Friends
After April 15th corona positive cases were increased day by day. Here there are some more experiences of my friends who stay around me I would like to share their Coronavirus Pandemic Experience of a Common Man as well.
lockdown affects my other NRI friends also. All of my hotelier’s friends some of them did not have enough funds to run those days due to Coronavirus Pandemicand at this time I felt ashamed of unable to give support to them. And some were fully jobless, it was a great shock for them. One of my friend issue was totally different from others. She used to go for work only 15 days and another half did others.
One hotelier friend who got a job offer before this lockdown and everything was on hold. But the problem was he has a family here. He used to pay room rent, bearing his family expenses every month as normal. In this difficult time how he will manage everything.
It was quite a tough time for those stewarding staff who worked in so many restaurants or hotels across Dubai and due to covid -19 experience of a Common Man has changed drastically. They used to get a very limited amount of salary and working for long hours. Now they paid only for food allowance which was very less amount.
Lockdown Brings Expenses Down
The good part is expenses have gone down due to people staying home mostly and therefore the way forward can be learning to get back to basics — that is learning to manage with basic necessities and cut down on the unnecessary or avoidable luxuries going ahead.
We need to understand that if we go a few generations back, such kind of expenditure was not happening and people were still happy. There are so many stories around me, by one word I can say this situation was really a disaster. People were just spending their life with stress all the time.
Now everyone really started to think about this situation of Coronavirus Pandemic and they experienced as a Common Man and staying at home whoever could take possible steps out of this dangerous disease.
Scare of Getting Affected by Covid-19
Police were checking outside the whole day with their car and keeping eye on people not to come out from home without any reason. The sound of the ambulance always reminded me about an emergency case of corona positives.
It was so scary in lockdown experience when two times I saw the ambulance down of my building. There was a like quick service available for the public whenever anyone felt any kind of symptoms related to the corona they could call at any time. At that time one day I saw on the television of so many people recommended taking herbal tea, hot water, and taking vitamin C for covid-19.
Budget Maintenance with Healthy Food
So as per their recommendation, we started to consume everyday herbal tea, hot water, and vitamin C. It was the most critical time of my entire life as our company paid us a limited amount of salary we had been running out of the budget. Everything we planned about our expenses.
I stay here with my family with one kid and wife on a sharing flat and few of them still went out for their work. And this was a crucial time and very scary for us. As we knew this virus spreads very quickly with man to man direct contact and some indirect contact.
Yoga Helped In Coronavirus Lockdown Time
 The lockdown affects almost all sectors of NRI. We started to focus on maintaining our hygiene practicing Yoga in the first place. Also hand washing frequently, proper cleaning and sanitizing the contact surfaces, and keep on boost our inner power taking proper diet.
Across the world everywhere this virus was spreading so fast we were getting more stressed day by day. Even I was so scared to go out for our essential groceries, it was one kind of scare always working on my mind that I might be infected at any time.
 Anyhow I managed the thing placed our order by delivery call and avoid to go out without any emergency. Daily we practice yoga in home. Many times I with my family start practicing Yoga for improving our immunity as well as starts spending time on reading books.
Difficult to Maintain Social Distancing
Surrounding my place where we live there are so many people living. Most of them are bachelors and it was so difficult to maintain social distancing for them. lockdown affects NRI(Non-Resident Indians) by sharing bed-space in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait, and Qatar are coping with the new normal of physical distancing.
But it is a medical dilemma when a person has contracted the virus. Testing for Covid-19 for a common man is a laborious procedure. However, many prefer to go for paid testing and get hospitalized. Only a few companies reimburse the expenses.
Especially in one room, they stay with so many guys. And this is the riskiest environment for everyone who staying beside them. We were watching outside the window whoever went outside everybody took their safety first wearing musk and gloves. Even when I used to go to throw my garbage I used to wear the safety musk.
Giving Kids Continuous False Promises
How all parents hold their kids and keep telling them not to go outside at this time. As earlier I mentioned that I have a kid to whom I was doing fake promise every day to take him outside in the ground or in a park. My little love one used to keep busy himself to play inside the room and sometimes he kept standing in front of the window.
Sometimes we were so frustrated staying at home for so long time. But the good thing is I could go some time what about my family they could not go out and stranded since January. Once we planned to go back to our country and at that time there was no aircraft operation and day by day in India also happened in the same situation.
Yoga Helped in Lockdown Time
One major aspect I have started recently is Yoga. My friends had suggested practicing basics yogasanas which include PT and few asanas like paschimottanasana, vajrasana, parsvakonasana, trikonasana, etc. I used to practice initially for 30 minutes then I have increased the timing.
What I have noticed, I am feeling much more energetic and active throughout the day. It’s not that I was not active previously but there is a certain increase in energy level. Which is a very positive sign I have felt. Watching me such energetic my colleagues have started asking the reason.
Even in my home also so my wife and my son started practicing yoga. One very positive aspect of yoga is you need not have to go to the gym, or any other place for weight lifting, etc. nothing. You just have to do basic PT and exercises along with the yoga asanas.
Yoga Helped In Lockdown Time for Common Man
My friend also has sent few videos showing how to practice basic pranayama such as anulom vilom, kapalbhati. All these basic practices I taught to my colleagues. Even many of them also have started practicing yogasanas. Practicing yoga asanas in the morning with empty stomach gives maximum benefit.
Throughout the day a surge of energy will boost your stamina, your agility, an overall improvement in your activeness. I called him and said thanks many times. In this coronavirus lockdown time throughout the world, if people becomes aware about Yoga it will help them to a great extent.
Yoga Helped In Coronavirus Lockdown Time for the World
Yoga is a combination of many exercises. What actually happens is, it improves the blood flow which in turn releases the toxins and activates many of the portions of internal organs. It is a very positive sign to stop the spreading of the virus. So I suggest everybody invest about 30 minutes out of 24 hours to practice yoga. You just need to be a little bit aware for a beautiful essence of energy we will achieve by practicing few simple asanas.
Extension of Emirate-Wide Lockdown
The capital of the United Arab Emirates has extended an emirate-wide lockdown for the coronavirus pandemic. Dubai, The capital of the United Arab Emirates has extended an emirate-wide lockdown for some more time over the coronavirus pandemic.
Movement also has been restricted into Abu Dhabi from the rest of the UAE, a federation of seven U.S.-allied sheikhdoms also home to Dubai. The lockdown comes as the rest of the UAE is trying to reopen its non-oil economy after the pandemic devastated its tourism and airline industry.
After May 24th government announced eases some restrictions on lockdown and slowly things were getting better. This is all about my experiences during this pandemic.
My Experience as Conclusion
The best attribute humans have is their capability to adapt to things and to manage to survive in every kind of situation. There will be initial hitches, but progressively, we all will get used to it and we will make peace with the changing situations. Yoga in this lockdown period has become a prime idea people are interested in. Well if you have anything striking as a common man please share your story of covid -19 experience of a Common Man by emailing contact@lifetimeyogi.com.
Further Reading On Different Topics:
Have you enjoyed reading about the Pandemic Experience of a Common Man? Well, Enjoy reading various Topics on Yoga and about Steps to Control India’s Overpopulation (2020) also. please check the article Overpopulation in India 2020 also. Take a look at our collection of articles about books for life as well as other categories in health & Inspiring Indians Life also.. Alternatively, read our article about the top benefits of honey for fighting against coronavirus to increase our stamina, & other interesting ideas for Various vegetables in our daily groceries.
References
- https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
- https://www.wikihow.com/Lose-Your-Fear-of-Being-Fired
- https://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-shut-down-company-anytime-36683.html
- https://www.inc.com/wanda-thibodeaux/why-you-should-think-twice-before-closing-door-to-your-office.html
- https://cbhd.org/content/coronavirus-explanations-and-ethical-issues
Author: Bhakti Pal. Bhakti is a very cool person with a friendly attitude. He write sometimes about his personal life also. Hopefully, he will be contributing more of his experience about Dubai…