Couch potato, nah, I’ve more like a Dorito chip lost between the cushions during last February’s Super Bowl, stale, slightly odorous with a green fuzz around the edges. Is it Thursday? Already? How can that be, yesterday it was Sunday, I’m quite sure.

It’s a challenge to stay within five pounds of your goal weight, to shave and shower at least every other day… and to stay strongminded and energized and purposeful as your world shrinks into your desktop monitor.

I know what I am supposed to do: be grateful for the many blessings that make my life so rich; be conscious of all that is good in my life; refuse to allow the pandemic to define how I live my life.

But that is as helpful as the yogic recommendation to end the morning shower with a brisk wake-up blast of cold water. It takes a hell of a lot of willpower and just what is the point of goose bumps on a shivering butt?

It’s a reminder that we have a choice – and the will – to access our inner wisdom even as we fall out of bed grumpy and pessimistic and wondering why we wasted a Monday evening watching the Bears stink up Soldier Field.

In the early weeks of the pandemic folks were coming out at sunset and singing songs and creating a sense of community bonding. But as the weeks turned into months, the disillusionment set in. Now, as the world comes to a standstill, it’s a singular challenge, to summon up the resolve to move forward with renewed purpose.

I’m reluctant to offer advice but I will share my response to the days when my bathrobe stays on till noon and the COVID-19 plague wins out and reduces life to a fenced-in dog run.

Go inward is the directive! Our inner wisdom is the resource to call upon.

For sure I troll the internet and keep abreast of the latest developments about vaccines and restaurants closing and ‘hot spots’ and the disillusioned folks who think wearing a mask is a socialist plot to undermine the second amendment, but I do not stop there: I put away the mobile and go inward. I find within, the resolve to shift the focus from ‘all-about-me’ to a higher good. I embrace with certainty the belief that there is a spiritual purpose behind everything that happens!

Am I going to wax poetic now? A bit, but please don’t roll your eyes and think I’m off on a New Age histrionic. We become “spiritual” when we are moved by values that seem to reveal a meaning or power beyond our visible world, such as beauty, love, or inherent goodness.

We get beyond the drudgery of our quarantine by creating a heart-felt relationship with the deepest meanings of life, moving from individual desire to a feeling of being connected with a larger reality…with nature or the cosmos; or with what some call divinity.

Free from the self-important pandering of the ego, your authentic Self emerges. You feel what is unseen, concepts such as love, compassion and forgiveness. It’s time to take off the bathrobe and get dressed and face the day.