Coronavirus and Happiness

Okay, how incredibly stupid can this be? I’m gonna make a video about happiness and the coronavirus. Isn’t that a winner topic for today? You know, hitting the fan, the store shelves are bare, there’s worry and fear everywhere. There’s disruption, unpredictability, and there’s despair. What should you do? Hide? Run? Do something? Well, how about “don’t worry, be happy”. Look, hit subscribe, and then watch this video to learn how and why you can be happy, or at least not panicking, in the midst of a pretty serious thing that’s going on in the world. Stay tuned.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. Look, negative emotions are instructive, and with the fear of the coronavirus all around us, of course, people are experiencing negative emotion. And really, fundamentally, most of the time, negative emotions are instructive, and not a bad thing. We evolved to have negative emotions on a survival basis, you know, like when we had fear, we armed for the life. When we had worry, we planned for the winter, and we harvested food and took care of ourselves. And when we felt lonely, we took care of and spent time with our loved ones. All of these kinds of negative emotions encouraged us to do things that helped us to survive.

And now, here we are in the 21st century, still experiencing all kinds of negative emotions, and sometimes we don’t know what to do with them. So, here we are, probably collectively, as a global community, experiencing anxiety, if I were to put it mildly, about what’s going on from a health public health risk. So, what do we do with these unwanted emotions? Well, first, accept them. Listen to what they’re telling you. You know, it doesn’t mean catastrophize them. I think David will put up a video I made before about kind of having a rational conversation with your emotions. So, we don’t catastrophize, but generally, we want to listen and say, what are we being told? What information is our gut, our emotion, telling us that we need to pay attention to?

And then, once you listen to your emotions and say, “Oh, I’m feeling fear,” or “I’m anxious,” or “I’m worried,” or whatever it is, then that’s the clue. The emotion said, “Pay attention, think about this,” and then we get to think rationally about how we might respond to whatever these emotions are telling us. And your rational response might feel quite different than some other person, and my neighbors next to me, and so on. Everybody’s gonna have a slightly different response, and that’s fine, but so long as we actually take on these emotions and think them through about how to respond. And there are, of course, serious potential consequences to the coronavirus. I mean, it could really eff things up, but that doesn’t mean that we throw in the towel, and panic, and run, hide, and go DOM, be Apocalypse mode. No, we’re gonna take some concrete actions, and I’m gonna give you a few basic tips.

The first one is, and it might be late for this, but you want to have an emergency fund in place. You want to have your finances in order so that you know you can get by when things go badly and maybe you can’t earn money when, say, the public spaces are just shut down, you can’t go into your workplace. So, if you’ve got a few months’ wages squirreled away under your bed or in a bank account, that’s great. If not, well, it’s unfortunate, but now you’ve got some period right now where you can think twice about spending any discretionary money. You may need a few extra dollars when things get weird, things like food might become hard to come by, and so, food prices may go up as a result. So, you need some money put aside.

Secondly, and here’s a little bit more practical stuff, start storing up for a few weeks of food. If you’re quarantined to your home, you’re gonna need enough food to get by. Additionally, stores may close because their staff are sick, or the stores, frankly, may simply have such large demand that they won’t have adequate supplies. And this is a reality in many parts of the world right now where people are panicking, and so they’re hoarding food already. And it’s mild panic, but the panic is nevertheless meaning that there’s no bread, rice, or flour potentially on your store shelves. So rather than being the last man standing, if you’re watching this video, go out and make sure that your family’s got enough food to get by for several weeks at home without having to go to the store.

Okay, next one, talk with your employer now about working from home. Make arrangements so that your income will not be disrupted if your workplace closes. If you’re physically needed at work, well, that’s more challenging. Consider that your workplace may close, and then you know, see my first bit of advice about having a few dollars in your pockets. Don’t go and buy that awesome new Bluetooth device that you just have to have, and maybe forego the double-double SOI SOI double mocha thing that you sometimes enjoy on your way to work.

Now, fourthly, think. The main thing about this coronavirus that’s likely to occur, but if the [__] does hit the fan, this is likely to be the case. The public healthcare system and emergency services are going to be completely overwhelmed. This means that you have to be planning to be on your own for a period of a while, and things that we ordinarily take for granted may become unavailable, like going and seeing your doctor or being admitted to a hospital may become either impossible or highly undesirable. So, make sure that your first-aid kit is well stocked. Download a first aid manual that you can trust, and read, and access, and it’s got good pictures in it. Get any prescription medications that you need filled now so you’ve got an extra supply to tide you over. And talk now with your family and friends about how you can help each other without causing them to panic. Obviously, have a good conversation about how you can pool resources. And of course, then enjoy those people that you love and that you want to be with when things get tough.

In times of crisis, it’s often the psychological coping that can be the hardest part. So, play games, look at old photo albums, be kind, and be grateful for the people you have in your life. And remember this, there’s good research showing that happy people have fewer symptoms when confronted with serious medical conditions like HIV/AIDS, for example, then unhappy people. So, this is a real clue to work on our own internal resources, to be in the best positive mind frame we can be, so that if things get rough

If things get rough, you’ve got a better chance of having low symptoms than if your attitude isn’t great. Oh hey, there’s one more last thing I should give you advice on: wash your darn hands. Wash them a lot, and I mean really often when you’re out in public. Health officials are saying to rub your hands in a soapy lather for as long as it takes you to sing, “Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear so-and-so, happy birthday to you.” Except at a normal pace. Go that long washing your hands, thinking to get in between your fingers, and then try not to touch your hands to your face. Yeah, good luck with that last one.

Or throw all the stuff, pay for the zombie apocalypse. I’m just kidding. That’s me playing paintball. No panic. When we listen to our fears, which are of service to us generally because they’re trying to keep us safe, and we, when we don’t catastrophize, and then we take a few rational precautions, we should, on the whole, get through this pandemic okay.

And if we have taken some appropriate steps, you know what? No matter what happens, you know you did the right thing. And odds are that this will be a public health scare that developed countries will manage really well. So take some rational steps. Once you do, tell your negative emotions, pay, subscribe to my channel, like the video, share it. Thanks for watching. I’m Paul Charisma, I’m your happiness expert.