When you know how to suffer, you suffer less!

Sachin Gupta
6 min readMay 26, 2021

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The title is actually a quote by Thich Nhat Hanh, a Buddhist teacher, and perfectly summarize my experience of last 6 weeks of getting impacted by Covid-19 and recovery. Before going into my Covid story, I want to share my first short poem, which I coincidently wrote just 3 days before I start getting my first symptoms.

There is a reason why I am suffering

Which I don’t know

Even if I know, I have to suffer

There is no need to know

Let’s not call it suffering

Here are my 10 key takeaways from my Covid experience which can be applied in daily life even after once pandemic is over.

1. Health over work should not be questioned

It was Monday morning, I woke up with fever which I thought is a regular sickness and so I took a day off assuming I will be fine by end of day. Next day when the fever continued my wife suggested me to take the day off again, I told her you are worried about the fever whereas I am worried about taking time off as there is a important assignment going on. She suggested me to be more worried about health over taking time-off, which I understand after being away from work for 6 weeks now and still not ready to join back office.

2. Self-rating for humbleness is often over-rated

After one week at home, when there was no sign of improvement inspite of medication and steroids, I got hospitalized. As I believe in law of karma, there were many instances which started flashing in front of me where I was arrogant with people in last few months. Though if asked otherwise, I would rate myself high in humility but this was a good reflection to recheck on where I stand.

But as I also know law of karma is much more complicated, I decided to let go of these thoughts, with a better understanding that it is not black or white that someone is either humble or arrogant, rather everyone is somewhere in between.

3. Having meaningful life does not mean doing social work

As I was confined to bed in the hospital, for every little thing I have to call “sister” for help and the response time varies significantly for few seconds to few hours depending on sister on duty. One of the sister, who was quite often responding me late or sometimes reacting as if I was not audible, once came to me to administer medication, I asked her whether she likes her job or not, she was quite honest in sharing that she don’t like her job as due to pandemic she has to handle 4 times more patient than in normal business. I had great sympathy for her and understood clearly that we should only expect from others after knowing their context.

However at the same time there was another learning when I see another sister who inspite of increased workload were responding promptly by being on her toes all the time. So I asked one of these sister, you seems to be always busy yet smiling, what is your secret? She responded yes I am busy but I also know my smile can be comforting to patients and may help to relive some of their pain.

4. Surrendering is a good option, even when you have other options

I have never been more neutral about my health condition than during my 2 weeks stay in the hospital. When I use the word neutral, I mean there was no worry, no hurry to get well soon, no fear of getting pricked or injected multiple times in a day, no desires, not missing anyone, no happiness, no sadness, no regrets of why I am in this condition. My mind was completely silent as I did not have my cell phone so no messages or phone calls from anyone except one short call arranged with my wife. I felt to be completely present as example was able to feel the digestion process after every meal, internally joyful with no need for any spiritual activity and as if everything is happening on its own realizing actual pain is not as painful as the visualization of the pain.

I like the word neutral more than surrendering as it sounds more neutral:) and my learning was that we can be more neutral in our daily life too if we can keep it simple and reduce distractions as much possible.

5.Minimalism can be re-defined

With sustainability taking center stage due to impact on climate, nature and ecology, I admire advocates of minimalism but at the same wondered why such a big portion of population does not give it a damn. One of the reason I learned is applying minimalism is difficult when it is seen as giving away some of the comforts and can look easy the baseline itself changes. During this time, I experienced best in class baseline of minimalism where just eating and sleeping defines your day which makes rethink of what is really needed to live!

6. We don’t belong here

In the daily call arranged with my wife by the ICU admin, my wife used to give me comfort by saying you will be back home very soon which used to give me relief that I am here for a short period of time. What about our complete life, are we not here on earth for a short period of time, questioning where do we belong, where is our home?

7. Relationship and not relatives which matters

I was astonished to see the kind of support provided by my friends and colleagues in my office, which made me believe just like Rome was not built in a day, relationships are built over period of time by caring for each other and building trust over a long period of time.

Another example recently was when I was moving from ICU to general ward, I was shifted to shared room with another person. As that person was about to be discharged in the evening, he did not want anyone else to move into his room. He was quite aggressive in not allowing me to enter the room but unfortunately it seemed he did not have choice. Not going in too much detail, in few hours by evening, we built a good rapport and he still calls me to check on my recovery!

8. Mind becomes active before body

I have never felt so mortal as I lost few kilograms of weight by the time I returned home. For more than 2 weeks, I had a blurred vision due to weakness so I could not read any book or use any digital devices, so I found out a good alternative and start listening podcasts for several hours a day. With my body so weak, it was a great experience to see that mind wanted to be engaged in something or other.

9. Body revival is magical

Every day, I will get so many messages from friends and family of how my recovery is happening. Though physical recovery from Covid is not a linear journey as you face several minor issues of different nature every alternate day, still to see the body recovering on a daily basis is just amazing and make me feel that we should be highly grateful for all we have!

10. Having something to look forward is being lucky

As I mentioned earlier, all the wishes and encouragement from all my friends was the number one thing which kept me positive. Apart from it, if I have call out looking forward to join back work is something I realize is a blessing and should never be taken for granted.

Given these learnings and a beautiful time spent with myself, at the first instance I wanted to title this as “Blissful Covid” but later changed it, as I feel sad looking at the suffering of so many people who do not have afford or do not have proper medical facilities and have to go through so many challenges because of greater impact. Though it is true that if you know how to suffer, you will suffer less…good luck and recover fast to all those who have been impacted and remember whatever don’t kill you makes you stronger!

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Sachin Gupta
Sachin Gupta

Written by Sachin Gupta

My motto is to learn and help as much as possible. I learn, listen and observe. I am interested in understanding life, human nature and relationships.

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