Since I live with anxiety, a friend checked on me earlier in the week to see if I was okay, and I said, “Oh yeah, I’m actually doing fine! I haven’t been reading or watching a lot, and that helps me.”
Yesterday I said to her, “Okay, now I’m panicking.” 😲
Fear isn’t all bad. It was the fear that told our ancestors the lions were coming. But allowing fear to take root and spiral and stop us from being our best selves is when it gets dangerous, I think. I think that is evident in the mass hysteria to stockpile. (Honestly, I didn’t understand the toilet paper. For a long time I thought this disease caused diarrhea.)🤷♀️
Okay, so the lions are coming. Now what? How do we get back control?
When I feel myself start to spiral, I always go back to the basics that help me; back to the truths that ground me. Death (specifically people I love dying) scares me. I can often start to spiral here. So as morbid as it is, I tell myself: “We are all dying.” It’s terrible, but helpful for me at the same time. To shift my perspective to that part of being human is death; so how can we LIVE this life to the fullest?
Here are truths that have helped me. Maybe they’ll help you too.
👉🏻Protect Each Other.
As an introvert, the social distancing is a dream. 😉But in all seriousness, it helped me to understand that the necessity of it is not because the disease is so deadly to all of us, it is to protect those that are most vulnerable to it. Like the elderly, those with auto-immune deficiencies, and those in cancer treatment. It is to limit the rapid spread of the disease because if it spreads too rapidly, hospitals and health care professionals and first responders wouldn’t be able to care for everyone at once and would be overloaded. It is to “flatten the curve.” (Look up this helpful article if you haven’t seen it already.) Thank you nurses, doctors, and all health care professionals: you are putting yourself on the frontline daily. You are the helpers.💓
👉🏻Do My Part.
Doesn’t that make you want to rise up and fight the disease? To know that humanity can help each other and care for our neighbor by simply washing our hands, staying home, and doing every thing we can to not let the disease gain foothold and spread? Instead of buying ALL the toilet paper, we can check on those that might not be able to, and help them. We can watch out for the ones that might fall through the cracks, that might not be able to stockpile or seek adequate medical care. We are the helpers.💓
Like every great cinematic battle scene shows us, this is NOT the time for us to let fear have a foothold by turning on each other and giving up. This is the time to unify (from our own houses of course) and work together and help our fellow neighbor. We are strong. We are good. I believe in humanity. We can do this.
Love Wins.💓💥
