Hey friends,
So last week, unfortunately, I tested positive for Covid-19. I tested using a Lateral Flow Test, therefore I do not know which variant I got. However, all the symptoms are pointing towards Omicron, the bad guy.
My background with Covid, is that I had never had one. My parents and my brother had it at the same time at the local third wave, all of whom I had to look after intimately, but I was fortunate enough I never got infected. I travelled all the way from Myanmar to the UK, during which I had to take off my mask occasionally for identification, and even after that, I had not got covid.
Two weekends ago, I received a notice from the accommodation reception team saying that my flatmates had tested positive for covid. That was unexpected to me, and from that day onwards, I had to do a Lateral Flow Test every day. I wore a mask each and single time I got out of my room, and I washed my hand every time I got into my room, and I took precautions to a significant extent. However, it wasn’t enough.
On Tuesday, I tested positive for Covid.
In short, on day 0 and 1, I had no symptoms whatsoever.
On day 2 and 3, I started to have a sore throat. It hurt to eat or drink, and it became a hard task to drink plenty water.
On day 4, the sore throat got much worse. It just hurt a lot. It was very painful to swallow anything, and I couldn’t have half a meal throughout the whole day. There was a general fatigue, and I think I slept for 16 hours+ to cope with the pain from the sore throat.
On day 7 onwards, the painful sore throat went away for good, and rather the itchy tickly throat came in. It was loads better, but the throat would be incredibly itchy-tickly when I speak, and thereby I would cough occasionally.
Today, as of this writing, is day 8, and I just got tested negative with a Lateral Flow Kit woohoo. If I get a negative tomorrow again, I am free to go out, woohoo.
The primary solution, as many say, would be to eat and sleep as best as we can. It’s easy for us to overlook either or both of those, and they play a vital role in our immune systems. It’s important to eat well prepared nutritious meals, and to have a full 8 hours of good sleep every night. And of course, to drink plenty of water.
As long as we do these, I am convinced, even if we are infected by the virus, we will be fine in a few days.
I am genuinely so grateful to my good friends, who checked in on me, and those who took the trouble to buy me groceries and meals, and cook me a meal. I survived with your support, otherwise I would have been stuck in my room alone. (I don’t think they will read this issue, so) I owe them lots of gratitude and sending out love to them x.
During these times when I have been unable to work, I happen to think a lot about my goals, and how I set my goals.
Somehow, I am attracted to the world of “creation”. I believe that creating is what we should do in a world where everything is to be so appealing to consume.
(Anything from McDonalds to Facebook, Instagram are professionally engineered for us to consume them as much as possible. Notice that we consume so much information, but we hardly ever create any. )
I started this newsletter roughly 5 months ago, and I am trying to get started with a YouTube channel. Now, I am discussing with a friend to start another big thing.
I have been made aware that it is important to have process-based goals rather than outcome-based goals.
When we have the latter, the outcome based goals, we most likely 1) feel dissatisfaction until we reach the goal, and 2) we feel good for a short moment, and we move onto the next goal. It’s similar to saying “I will be happy when I achieve this thing x.” and it implies that we won’t be happy until we achieve the thing x, and even if we did, the “happiness” would be as short as mere seconds.
Rather, when we have process-based goals, I am convinced both of those are eliminated. When we have the process started, there is no end-goal. Or even, the end-goal is not the primary focus. The focus is to do the work, do the process. As long as it is enjoyable, we will be happy doing it, and it will hopefully help us achieve something as a by-product.
Keeping this in mind, I am trying to reaffirm that my focus is on my routines – to publish a newsletter issue every week, and now a video every week as well. As long as I enjoy doing these, but consistently on a set basis, it will be all fun and good.
Also, it is also a nice reminder to measure the gain, not the gap.
Thank you so much for reading.
Please take care of yourself and your loved ones.
Have a nice week ahead.
Kaung. x