DURING these trying times with Covid-19 in the 21st century, we should come together as one nation, as one world, to work together to eradicate if not to manage the pandemic the best we can.

It is truly sad to see people in the millions if not billions in the world going through so much distress and uncertainty. Their livelihoods being affected to such great magnitude and the number of loved ones lost to this infectious disease.

In order to emerge out of it, every individual ought to be responsible and do what is necessary even though the research information is slowly but surely being released and updated on the coronavirus and infection. We have to also develop social responsibility.

As I read and observe on a daily basis, there are many people, organisations and governments struggling to manage the pandemic to the best of their ability.

On the other hand, there are several individuals or groups who are trying to benefit from it. It can be in the monetary sense, political or power-based sense. These people are really selfish and self-centred.

At the critical time we are in, each one of us ought to reflect, contemplate, identify and prioritise the needs of our self, families, community, nation and the planet Earth that we live in called the world.

Self-evaluation is very important. These needs got to be in a positive note, meaning righteous and virtuous needs.

This can only be achieved when our mind, body and soul are synergised in a holistic manner.

Our mind needs major cleansing from all impurities that have settled from the time we were children.

We are exposed to contaminants such as negative influence through the people around us and the environment.

These contaminants can come from our family, teachers, friends, neighbours, leaders, strangers or even the digital media.

As we accumulate these contaminants in our mind, these thoughts slowly mould us into who we are today. This forms our character.

We act and react to people and situations the way the mind suggests us to.

This is the reason why the world in general to a certain extent is in such a chaotic state.

Some of us lack the basics of a positive quality. One of the major qualities is respect.

We find it so difficult to respect people, people’s religious beliefs/other beliefs and the environment.

“Tolerance” has become a common word among us to justify our lack of disrespect.

Tolerance is also a positive quality but to be used appropriately.

We should not be “tolerating religious or other beliefs, racial/ethnic people or the damage being done to our environment and so on”. We should respect all of the above.

Each one of us ought to embrace the word “respect” in our mind in order to have it displayed naturally towards people and the environment.

Most of us have along the way managed to get rid of most of these negative contaminants in the mind and have changed for the better.

A lot of people are beginning to speak up and demanding their respective government leaders in most countries to change some of the laws and policies.

They are also fighting for their fundamental rights. These are being done through dialogue sessions, memoranda and peaceful protests until they are heard and positive results achieved.

To a certain extent, the success rate in some countries has been excellent. This is the reason why there is hope and optimism in the world.

In order to improve the status of this beautiful planet we all live in, we must first start cleansing our minds.

Only then can our mind, body and soul enjoy the Creator’s synergy or the universal synergy.

We will then manifest the positive values and be able to influence the “evil” or negative people and the environment.

It is not an easy task to “clean house” (cleanse our mind), but it is certainly not impossible.

As long as our minds are contaminated, we will only attract similar kind of people and situations in our lives.

This is the reason why we should “plant good seeds” or good thoughts in our young children. This will produce good adults in the future.

As we gradually flush out the negative thoughts, we shall begin to enhance our personal qualities.

These qualities are integrity, credibility, honesty, humility, responsibility, trustworthiness, accountability, adaptability, amiability, reliability, respectability and punctuality.

To optimise it, we need qualities such as generosity, compassion, care, love, effort and time.

A simple example would be the word “punctuality”. Some of us are never or rarely punctual, let it be for official or unofficial instances. This clearly shows disrespect to someone or some people.

During my school days in Malaysia, we had a subject called Civic Lesson.

It was part of our education system. I hope our Ministry of Education can introduce a subject totally to groom all our young children from elementary school onwards to produce good positive human beings.

I had presented several programmes on mind development to schools on how children can strengthen their minds for a positive outcome.

Let us begin with our self and make a concerted effort to remove these negative contaminants from our mind whilst enhancing our positive qualities.

We can start today by identifying our contaminants, then getting rid of them on a daily basis with determination and perseverance.

We go on to fill our mind with positive thoughts.

We shall see tremendous results within 21 days. Only then can we influence others positively around us. We cannot harvest apples if we plant a cherry tree.

Let us take our last breath feeling that we have been instrumental to as many people as possible in sharing peace to make this world a special place. – August 5, 2021.

* Margaret Pius Vendargon is a trainer in mind development and does emotional therapy.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.