Image from the CDC
As I type, perched at my desk, I am wildly aware that we all sit in different cities around the world, holding different perspectives and varying levels of fear regarding the most recent global pandemic, the Coronavirus.
Much hangs in the balance as business trips and conferences get canceled, markets fluctuate, and employees and students are advised to stay at home; truth be told, the instability could end quickly, or not.
What is frightening is not necessarily the virus itself, as in many ways it is relatable to the flu, but what has the globe in an anxious grip, is the unknown and the resulting volatility it engenders.
Consequentially, our limbic (flight/flight/freeze) systems kick into gear, intending to protect. It’s there for a good reason, but when it is no longer the helpful passenger that points out the potholes or the merging lanes ahead, but aggressively grabs hold of the steering wheel, well, that’s a recipe for disastrous pileups on the interstate. In the end, it’s not just your car that you don’t have control over, but it’s thousands of other drivers on the road, experiencing the same thing.
So what do we do?
Most fundamentally, we need to stay calm. I’ll get to “how,” but let’s shed light on some critical whys you might not be aware of.
Irrespective of whether this virus comes to you, consistent stress inflames the body. Stress, attributed by some experts as responsible for up to 90% of illness and disease, floods the body with hormones during hyper-stressed states. As a result, white blood cells decrease, and rate of infection skyrockets.
If we expend our energy and our focus on stressors instead of creative solutions, we effectively lower our body’s ability to fight. AND we all know what happens to sports teams that spend exhaustive games staying solely in the defense, instead of the offense: it is not likely they win the championship.