SURVIVING COVID, FOR NOW
In a post-pandemic world, look to the teachings of past masters
There has never been a harder time to live for many as the ongoing Covid-19 global pandemic is considered to be one of the darkest hours in modern history. With tomorrow so uncertain, how are we supposed to live and just plain survive in this health scare and rapid change of economic fortune? While we never know what the future holds, we can use the opportunity to define our future. As the saying goes: “You can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.” The pandemic not only brings about death and difficulty but also opens a window of opportunity for us to start anew.
Suvit Maesincee’s new book The Seven Shifts: How We Can Thrive In The Post–Covid-19 World gives readers a new perspective on the pandemic that perhaps can turn the crisis into a new opportunity, from which we can say: “Without Covid-19, there is no opportunity to create a better world.” Suvit completed this e-book at a high-speed, with an attempt to explain the psychological thinking that should guide policy that is useful, but inevitably limited. With the situation and knowledge changing daily, unfurling events will always render some aspects of such an analysis obsolete.
With the strong belief that the solution for achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals can be guided by the “Sufficiency Economy Philosophy” introduced by the late King Bhumibol the Great, Suvit, former minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovations, has taken a brave shot at an impossible task.
The Seven Shifts: How We Can Thrive In The Post–Covid-19 World is about seven shifts in the world, which is the way to live a normal life in the world after the spread of the virus by presenting interesting directions in each dimension, which can be applied at the individual, community and national levels. Suvit balances his recommendations with the philosophy of King Rama IX — which is in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals — as well as presenting an agenda for leading Thailand into the new normal era. With a total 112 pages, the book comprises three chapters.
The first chapter introduces the “Sufficiency Economy Philosophy” as a sustainable solution for humanity to respond to the inevitable transformation caused by Covid-19. Second, a post–Covid-19 “we society” based on the concept of “thriving in balance” is discussed. The third chapter (Thailand’s National Agenda Framework in the Post–Covid-19 World) provides an example of Thailand’s National Agenda to illustrate how the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy can be applied to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals in the post–Covid-19 world.
With all the words and wisdom shown alongside many different charts and diagrams, the author gets right to the core of how to survive pandemic and life. He uses many thoughtful stories and looks for an alternative outcome. Through resource there is a way to make a personal choice to see this life experience through a different lens and to find personal satisfaction and triumph through self knowledge and optimism. The new book provides you with workable tools to not only manage your stress, anxiety and fear, but gives you clear actions so that you can take new steady steps and move forward into this new normal life.