Is coronavirus your nightmare? Here is how to wake up

She is the author of the best seller book "Offices' proof happiness" and ranked as one of the 12 most influential voices of Latin America by the professional network LinkedIn.

She describes herself as a "professional curious." Regarding this, Ramírez comments to The Woman Post "I've always felt curious for human beings, in understanding what we like, with what we dream, but most importantly why we like what we like. So, I have always tried to understand what successful people do and for successful, I mean the happier people".

Sylvia got her degree in Law from the Universidad del Rosario and some years later finished her Masters' degree in administrative law. However, life would have a more prosperous future for her in the auditoriums giving seminars as an international speaker of happiness, leadership, and personal branding. Nowadays, more than 60.000 people have attended her seminars. She has an impeccable record and is recommended by Forbes magazine in Spanish and Centrum (the first business school in Latin America) as one of the most outstanding and influential opinion leaders in Spanish.

Also read: How to deal with your emotions during the pandemic

"I've taught all the tools I have spoken about , but first, I have tried them on myself, in a spontaneous and informal search, without any therapeutic pretense, but it has worked for me as something personal", she assures.

The Woman Post reunited with the referent in happiness and personal branding in Latin America to talk about how to wake up from this pandemic that most people have cataloged as a "nightmare".

According to Sylvia, all the things that happen along the day could be described as a blessing or curse: having met someone, being in this time of the pandemic, your car getting crashed, etc.
To wake up, Sylvia recommends not making judgments of reality and asking ourselves the following question: if I did not have the internal dialogue that I have, what would improve in my life? It is essential to understand the power of words with which we catalog our day today.

"Another efficient tool for waking up is trying to live one day at a time. While it is true that it is smart to anticipate events, the key emotionally is to focus on the present" assures the speaker.
On the other hand, Sylvia highlights that pain fulfills the function of accelerating processes: "that is, the pain that we are feeling due to the pandemic because our finances getting affected, a loved one is missing, or because we are afraid, helps us to accelerate the process of, for example, becoming more mature people."

The invitation of the speaker is blatant: stop fighting with reality because it is not under our control. What we can control is our attitude towards the circumstances that life presents us. Regarding this, Sylvia emphasizes that there are two types of people: the "asleep" who are the ones who react, and the "awake" who are the ones who act: "the more each one lives intensely in the moment, the less they will feel surprised with circumstances, and that is very important because in the long run the quality of our life is reduced to the quality of the decisions we make".

Sylvia recommends looking inward to find out what is missing from the old days. After doing this exercise, reflect on what do you miss from your life before the pandemic. "In life, what you think about yourself will always be more important than the things that happen to you, because if I think of me that I am a victim of circumstances, from the outset, I'm already losing," she clarifies.

"The best antidote for nightmares is to wake up because nightmares only happen when you are sleeping." By "being asleep" Sylvia refers to being a prisoner of the ego "if I tell myself every day that I am unique, that I deserve VIP treatment, and that I am important, the conclusion is this: I am very vulnerable, whoever is more beautiful or more intelligent than me is going to let me down. This is something we need to take care of", she warns.

According to the expert, many of our nightmares are because we live asleep because of the premises of the ego, and we never take the time to look beyond those premises: "What does it mean to wake up? To become aware that we are love and that we are all part of the same thing," she emphasizes.

Now, this is a time to accept our emotions instead of controlling them, "when you try to control what you feel, there are only three possible scenarios: the madhouse, the jail or the cemetery because when you want to control everything, you'll lose your mind" she assures.

Instead, we should ask ourselves "how can I take advantage of this feeling?". For example, if I'm feeling envy: it can help me to realize that at this moment, there is something I could work on to be better, that there is an area of my life that I could strengthen. If I feel sad, it helps me to take it easy.

Regarding the most useful leadership tool to face the pandemic, Sylvia quotes James Clear, the author of "Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones", who assures that "you do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems". This means that we must review our routine and evaluate what habits we should keep, as well as which ones we should acquire. At this point, it is essential to have a clear goal because, as Sylvia emphasizes, "life generally responds to action."

Finally, Sylvia gives words of encouragement regarding the current situation in the world: "this time that is getting long, in fact, in a few years, we will remember it as a little pothole. All this will pass".