Wishing you peace. Just a point to make at this time. Fear could sometimes make us live our lives trying to avoid bad things from happening. During this period however, fear would be one of the characteristic emotions that our system feels based on the presenting stimuli that is around us.
One way to counter our emotion of fear is to ask ourselves “what can I control at this time”. Feelings are basically physiological – meaning you cannot tell yourself not to at times feel fearful. Behaviour, which comprises: my words, my thoughts, and my actions are “choice” based. Which means that although I cannot necessarily control how I feel at this time I have total control over which behaviours I choose.
The “weak point” of this Covid-19 ( Novel Corona Virus) is that it has not taken away our power to choose behaviours that can keep us safe physically, physiologically, emotionally, spiritually and socially.
Therefore, at this time it is important for us to regain control of fear by behaviorally exercising our power of choice. Choosing positive behaviours at this time “will” assist us in creating stimuli that will remove or greatly lessen our feelings of fear. For example:
- I will choose to only listen to information about this virus from credible sources (Ministry of Health and WHO).
- I will choose to conduct myself in a manner that helps to eliminate the spread of the virus – washing hands regularly, not touching face while out in uncontrolled environments, social distancing etc.
In closing, fear is a natural emotional response at this time, however, we must behaviorally exercise our power of choice, to not only keep ourselves and loved ones safe, but to also start to realign ourselves with psychological wellness.
