A Love Letter to the Future: Part 1

“What we do now echoes in eternity,” said Marcus Aurelius. The transition of the past few months has been stressful but also a time to remove obsolete habits, to rebuild our priorities, and to explore new paradigms. With this in mind, PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN interviewed DR. ELIZABETH DENLEY on our ability to adapt to changes during COVID times. Elizabeth holds a PhD in ecology as well as having spent over 30 years practicing Yoga and studying the yogic sciences. She sees the bridging of science and spirituality as the way of the future.

- PURNIMA RAMAKRISHNAN

Q: Welcome, Elizabeth, thank you for joining us on this webinar.

Thank you, Purnima. It really is a pleasure to be here with you.

Q: The COVID-19 situation has affected our basic understanding and assumptions of how our society operates. Things like, “Can I go to a restaurant?”Is it safe to get a haircut?”Can I meet my friend?”These questions do not have the same answers they did six months ago. So, when humanity has endured this health crisis, what will the new normal be like?

You know, history helps us here. Human beings have been through many such crises. There was the 1918 Spanish flu, the bubonic plague, and many other pandemics that have affected humanity, causing us to reset and recalibrate the way we do things. Some people would say that such crises come only to force us to recalibrate because we are not looking at ourselves well enough. Why is it that we need a crisis to push us to change? Certainly, COVID is a crisis that is forcing humanity to look at itself in many ways.

The little coronavirus has transformed our behavior. We are experiencing a period where people have the opportunity to reflect, to go within, to figure out what has worked, and what has not worked from the past. We have the opportunity to pause. And we have many very serious social, economic and cultural issues to reflect upon.

One of the first things I learnt at university is that any species that destroys its environment will either go extinct or it will change. In genetics it’s called mutation; in behavioral sciences, it’s called adaptation.