Dealing with pandemic also can include taking time for reflection

While social distancing measures are increasing our fatigue, we should consider how these weeks can offer opportunities to rest, reflect and rethink our values, concerns and routines.

This is a period of upheaval. As a resident tutor of Harvard College, I watched students moved to tears by a sudden notification to leave campus and disperse across the globe in a week's time. Entire university ecosystems moved online, events were postponed and stay-at-home orders were announced across the country.

With the dust settling on a new, temporary normal, how can we spend these days to advance our mental, emotional and spiritual well-being?

As a researcher of Sufi poetry (the now-famous Persian mystical poets Rumi and Hafez, for example), I spend my days sitting with the words of spiritual masters of the past. In searching their writings for insights, I found they had some helpful insights.

Sufi teachers from across the centuries have commented on occasional solitary retreat or khalwa, as a vital practice. The contemporary teacher Shaykh Hisham Kabbani speaks of khalwa as a 40-day period of cleansing the heart, detaching from material concerns and remembering one's blessings. The 18th-century Syrian Shaykh al-Nabulusi speaks of the importance of khalwa for avoiding social strife (helpful given recent confusion). In these days, I suggest we take stock of where we are mentally, socially, emotionally and spiritually to compliment all we are doing to keep our physical bodies healthy.

Solitary retreat can take many forms. Mindful eating, painting, meditation or long walks are examples of practices conducive to rest and introspection. The value of periodic retreat is not only a Sufi concept. I think of my Christian friends who are currently participating in Lenten practices of fasting and prayer. More importantly, solitary retreat does not have to be a religious experience. Wellness experts admit the positive elements of practices such as meditation routines, fasting from technology and journaling.

In sitting attentively with ourselves, we may discover opportunities for outward healing - a desire to reach out to old friends, to mend ties with family members or to spend intentional time with our children. While times also call for Netflix bingeing and video game marathons (spiritual masters also emphasize not being too hard on oneself!), introspection may inculcate personal and societal shifts in thinking about our relationships with ourselves, our neighbors, our work schedules, our economies and our planet.

This advice cannot be universal, especially in a moment of unprecedented public health crisis. Some would rightly argue these are suggestions for the privileged. Many do not have the luxury of practicing social distancing, including vital health care workers, grocers and delivery personnel. For the majority, however, we find ourselves with a choice of how to spend newfound leisure time.

Additionally, many homebound parents will understandably scoff at this proposal. Indeed, those with familial obligations often have significantly less time to care for their own well-being. However, I take heart that many Sufis were themselves parents and maintained extensive social networks. Al-Nabulusi wrote his retreat manual for those who must maintain familial and work obligations, even in times of distress.

I also recognize the danger in calls to be productive in the days of social distancing. Retreat and introspection should not produce further anxiety to finish a new novel or establish an intensive meditation regimen. These values are not and should not, be a luxury of the elite; they are universal and vital principles of well-being.

While grief and pain must be honored at this time, we should not despair. These moments may teach us how to live in greater harmony with ourselves and our surroundings, nourishing values that will carry us not only through this pandemic, but through the days and years to follow.

• Peter Dziedzic, of Addison, is a doctoral candidate in religious studies at Harvard University and a resident tutor at Pforzheimer House of Harvard College.