What is COVID-19 here to teach us?

Written by Maeve Belshaw, co-founder of Soulful Soundwaves


As I write this, we’re in the depths of a world pandemic. A new virus (one we have never seen before) has very quickly swept its merry way across the world claiming victims as it moves with force. We (humans), the apparent most ‘powerful’ species on the planet, have been stopped in our tracks. We’re in self-enforced isolation, or hibernation. Not just me, not just my family, not just the nation in which I currently call home, the entire world!

Illustration by Elena Mozhvilo

If someone had come up to me a year ago, or even six months ago for that matter, and said “Maeve, soon the world will come to a stop. You won’t be able to physically see your family you don’t live with, you won’t be able to take your friend’s kids to the playground, you won’t be able to have a leisurely breakfast by the sea and you most certainly will not be able to hug your beloved friends.” What do you think I would have said? What do you think you would have said to this news?

Possibly something along the lines of “don’t be ridiculous! For what, a virus? But we are so technologically and medically advanced that we will be able to stop something like this WAY before it would ever get that far.” Or so we thought...

As with everything, I like to sit back and dissect the bigger meaning of things. In my world, there is always a bigger reason as to why things happen. Always. I step out of my minute and personal detail, ask and start to seek what is happening on a bigger, universal and spiritual level. Here is what I feel to be true…

For quite some time, and I mean centuries, we have little by little been walking ourselves into a more individualistic way of living. Less about ‘us’ and ‘our’ and more about ‘me’ and ‘my’.

In 2019 alone, we saw ourselves building even more walls, constructing even higher fences of fear and creating even more enemies.

This selfish outlook and perspective has clouded our judgements and decisions as a species – we’ve turned our vulnerable neighbours into unwanted guests, we’ve been fighting all kinds of wars (literally) to prove we’re powerful and worthy of ownership, we’ve been treating nature as a resource rather than a helpful aid and we’ve been turning anything that challenges these egoic and individualist beliefs into a threat. However, the reality is, all these intoxicating thoughts and actions have been negatively festering under the surface to create something very serious – dis-ease within our very own species on a MASS scale.

Illustration by Elena Mozhvilo

One thing COVID-19 clearly illustrates is how spiritually and energetically sick we’ve been as a species for a very long time. We’ve been slowly losing the connection with ourselves and those around us. We’ve doubted our own beliefs and our own knowing to be swept away in the beliefs of others.


What’s more interesting is we’ve been shown the signs on more than one occasion, in more than one country. Yet we have still chosen to ignore that what we’re thinking, believing and doing is out of alignment with what our species is here to be.

We’ve allowed ourselves to believe the self-righteous and arrogant view that we are of utmost importance. We rule the world, we call the shots and we create life exactly how we want it to be. I think you will agree that COVID-19 has certainly illustrated life does NOT go as we imagined and expect it to go.

What is apparent is something BIG had to happen and on the mass scale for us to take stock and unfortunately it was inevitable. It is Law – and a universal Law at that! The principle of cause and effect according to which every one of our thoughts, words or actions sets a specific effect in motion which will materialise over time.

This force is WAY greater than you and I, however you and I contribute greatly to the outcome. It connects us all and there is not one single person on our planet exempt.

Illustration by Elena Mozhvilo

Our oceans move as one, our whole planet, neighbouring planets and entire universe move as one. It’s a macrocosmic system in which every little microcosm does its part. To remove ourselves as a species from the equation of oneness and to think that our thoughts and actions don’t have consequences has damaging results.

We are one. We breathe as one. There is not one thought or action I can do that doesn’t impact my health and those around me. And what we’re seeing right now before our very own eyes is if one chokes, we all start to collectively choke.

When we heal ourselves we heal the planet because all life breathes together.
— Caroline Myss

Every single one of us has an invisible energetic bond that connects the purest part of our soul to the purest part of another. A thread of love, forgiveness, grace and pureness. It connects your heart to mine, and to all life that surrounds us. And what we’re seeing right now is a virus attacking our weakened centre as a collective – our heart chakra. This, my dear friends, is by no means any coincidence.

So what’s it to be? Because let’s be brutally honest here, we can write our history and the history of our species. We can choose what way we want to go. However, one thing is for sure – it is one in, all in.

Will COVID-19 lead us back into the softening within our own heart, the opening of our arms to everything and everyone with compassion and understanding or will we choose to be forever isolated in the walls of our very own existence?

Illustrations by Elena Mozhvilo from Unsplash