Wanna beat Covid-19 fear and anxiety? Try these two things!

The TV screens are flashing covid-19 alerts incessantly, newspapers following the suit in headlines about the same malady and the internet lines choking with the related stuff. Covid-19 is the most commonplace community buzz over telephone lines too. Fear mongering is the new normal among people of all age groups. Figures have a demographic distribution of terror across a range of different age brackets i.e. kids, the young and the oldies. Notwithstanding the terrifying impact of covid-19 phenomenon on the world of today, there is a need to nurture a sane approach to look for the possibilities to co-exist with such maladies unless they are finally dealt with.

There are two ways we can cope with the covid-19 trauma:

• Build a selective perspective

• Attitude of gratitude

1. Selective Perspective - a shield against anxiety 

Selective perspective asks for a mental effort to look back in time and assess our current positioning against some similar experiences that humanity has had with anxiety and fear in the recent past. Surely, it is not the first time that humans are having to deal with a virus. History reveals quite heart-rending details about such viral breakouts in the past. Oran, the Algerian coast had it in the 40s of the nineteenth century. Similarly another pandemic called ‘black death’ killed 50 million people in Europe in the 14th century. The Italian plague of 1629 killed 280000 across the plains of Lombardy and the Veneto. The great plague of London of 1665 had a terrific death toll too. The plague that ravaged china’s eastern seaboard during the 18th century did leave a scar on our collective memory of pain.

The positive perspective that we need to build against the malady is an easy one to constitute. Firstly there has to be a conscious effort in place in order to quell the ‘inattentional blindness’ that we cast to the positive prospects when there is a general credulity for fear. If you apply your mind and attention to harm, what else will you have than a feeling of paranoia? Yes, the whole human kind has been driven into a state of paranoia to an extent that overrules and overrides all reason. So why not commit your mind to the bright side of the picture. The question is ‘how?’

The most recent pandemic that hit the planet earth before covid-19 was the Spanish flu of 1918. No doubt it wreaked an enormous death toll of about 50 million, yet 65% of the world population didn’t get it at all.

Since there was no vaccine yet available against influenza, nor was there any provision for the antibiotics to treat secondary bacterial infections, the only non-pharmaceutical measures adopted to control the disease included social distancing, use of disinfectants, personal cleanliness and quarantine.

However today, we have way better means and methods to fight this invisible evil. Never before did humans have the fastest means of communication that feature our today’s life. The moment corona stats hit the headlines back in January 2020, from Wuhan, China; the information went viral across the globe faster than the virus itself. By 5th January, 2020, WHO had published first disease outbreak news to the scientific and public health community as well as the global media. The rest of the public awareness campaign raged the social media lines and in no time the world came alive and kicking against this emerging threat.

Besides distancing ourselves from fellow beings as a preventive measure, we also need to distance ourselves from this deluge of state generated figures about escalating corona cases on daily basis. Instead, we can feel a lot better if we can build an individual perspective on such data.

Let's break it down to some understandable bits:

In spite of a high and a bit over-rated vulnerability factor, 50% of the population will still stay unaffected by covid-19. 

You might think that what if you end up counting one among those 50% who do contract the disease. Well, even then there is 99% chance that you will survive because the mortality rate is just 1%. 

There is a robust 90% chance that you will not even need to go to a hospital. Just quarantine yourself happily at home and make peace with your own self. Read to your mental wellness. Enjoy good food. Drink plenty of water. Stay clean and wash your hands quite often.

Well, if you are still bent upon believing that you could be the one to figure among that 1% of the human race that will succumb to this malady, then the only solacing fact is that we are not here to live forever. There are thousand other reasons we can die let alone the occasional grip of pandemics like these.

2. Attitude of gratitude:

It might sound a bit weird to talk about an attitude of gratitude in times of pestilence. But I think it is the aptest measure to be adopted in order to reinvest your faith in your own well being and fight the fears weighing you down. Do practice it every day. Here is the suggestive low-down:

• Talk more favourably of your wellness and appreciate it in others too for a healthy reciprocation of wellness-talk.
• Be grateful for all the good things happening around you and figure yourself as a partner in bliss.
• Take stock of your strengths and help others find theirs.
• Keep a journal and do manage to populate it with a list of things you feel you are grateful for. 2-3 three things a week might get you started on this project, and then narrow it down to the count of your blessings on daily basis.
• Keep a vision board and spare some space on it for the words that inspire you to stay fit and healthy. Let such expression set up you daily mood for higher self- recognition.

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Changing the perspective and boosting your attitude for gratitude can build your immunity against perpetual feeling of paranoia in times of pestilence. And that is the armour that will shield you against any invisible fears.