Still so much information and change are swirling these days. Everyone I know is either working like crazy or going stir-crazy because they are home hunkering down. And there is also much fear and anxiety because of general uncertainty, and understandable concern about health issues and financial well-being. How long will this continue? Will I and my loved ones be okay? Will I have a job, an income? What will the future look like? So much that no one knows.
By now everyone has come across suggestions for staying healthy and sane. I probably don’t need to state them, but I will. Can’t hurt to be reminded. Physical Health. Stay sheltered unless you need to go out for food, medicine, etc. Wash your hands, repeatedly! New habit, scrub with soap for 20 seconds before rinsing. Or use hand sanitizer, repeatedly! Eat healthfully, exercise, get enough rest. Psychological Health. Stay connected via phone, email, text, video with family and friends. Meditate, follow a spiritual practice, stop and breathe.
I will add one more tip that I find helpful. Despite being at home, keep a schedule. Know what things you need to do each day to feel on top of things. For me, it’s meditating, exercising, and personal grooming, like taking a shower. I find my dogs help me too, to keep everything in perspective. They want me to practice some loving kindness and keep their schedule. Then we are all more content.
Two more thoughts. First, I can’t help but reflect on the irony that this virus hits us right where we are most vulnerable and most powerful. In being social creatures. Our connectivity is what defines human culture, economy, human everything. And the virus spreads mainly through human contact. Yet we must all work together to contain, manage and defeat this virus.
Working together demands that we bring our best to this struggle. It demands courage, discipline and altruism. It demands character. (https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/character), and I mean, “3: moral excellence and firmness.”
Who knows what new ways of living and doing will evolve from all this effort?
And the last thought. Actually, this is not mine. A friend mentioned it and now I can’t forget it. What if all the C-suite people who make more than $1,000,000.00 annually gave up half their salary for a year and pooled this money to help those at the bottom economic rung, assisted the healthcare industry, education systems, and charitable nonprofits in our country and the world? That would be a pile of money and it could do so much good!
Stay healthy, stay strong.