How to Survive Coronavirus (Mentally)

Hi, I’m Paul Krismer, and this week’s video about happiness is basically how to survive in this era of a pandemic. And I’m not talking about how to get by physically, how to heed the public health warnings, or how to eat the right things, or you know, taking care of your physical health. That’s not what I’m about. I’m talking about our mental health. How do we mentally cope with the degree of uncertainty, the volume of change in our lives that are occurring, the breakup of our usual routines, and the underlying fear of just what might happen to us, either individually health-wise or frankly, in terms of the economy that’s suffering just so greatly? So, how do we survive this week? I’ve got three tips, each of them powerful and helpful. So stay tuned, and we’ll get to those tips.

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. So if we’re looking for ways to cope mentally through this incredible volume of change and uncertainty which is, in and of itself, it has to be anxiety-provoking, there are really clear-cut things that we can do. And I want to give you three ideas today, three, each of them I think in and of themselves are powerful and combined, they can make a significant difference in your own life.

The first tip is simply this: get outside, which is why I’m filming here today. It’s not a beautiful day where I live today, it’s a blustery spring day, but I’m outside. Even in this diffused sunlight, I’m getting the vitamin D. I’m getting some exercise, I’m walking and breathing. This is critical to our functioning right now. So many of us are kind of locked in place in our homes and when we are going places, it’s with this kind of precision in and out lay, so we had to achieve something then get out. And there’s so much more that we can do by just being conscious of taking care of our own physical health, and there’s nothing more important both for my exercise, breathing point of view, and from a kind of spiritual, if I can say that, a mental well-being position, to get outside and enjoy the fresh air and get that sunlight.

The second thing is this: keep control of your news habit. Right now, we’re all information hungry, and there’s a lot of uncertainty in our lives. Of course, we want more information and so many of us are glued to the TV or reading the news places on our web sites on our on our phones more than we ordinarily would and that is going to be a problem because the news is all bad, and it’s all about uncertainty, and um, it’s not very new a day after day, there’s not a ton changing. So we’re just being reminded over and over again about what’s not going well. So limit your news intake, and if you limit it to say, 20 minutes a day to some credible news source and I say this with some reluctance because I don’t want to be political on this message. Hi puppy, I don’t want to be, I pull it, call it, miss message, but be very thoughtful if you’re going to the same news sources all the time that have a bias and agenda.

I’m thinking like Trump’s friends at Fox News. The information is less accurate than other sources and so tragically history is gonna show that people’s lives got lost by not paying attention to better sources of information. And I don’t again, I won’t be political but spend 20 minutes a day getting good information from a credible resource: The Washington Post, New York Times, PBS, in Canada, The Globe and Mail, and other very good journals, newspapers. Be careful about your media consumption because that information is leaving a big, big impression and we are vulnerable to the emotional context of the information we get in. So, for reading and seeing too much news, the emotional context is all freaking scary. So limit your consumption, and that relates to this third tip for you.

The third tip is simply beware this idea of social distancing or self-isolating. These words that we’re using are totally contrary to who we are as humans. Our very most basic need as a kind of tribal species is to be connected with other people and so in the midst of this pandemic, we can’t let ourselves become so isolated that we aren’t meeting that basic human need. So, I want to call it safe socialization, not social distancing, not self-isolation, but safe socializing. When you’re out like I am today, be about 2 meters or 6 feet apart from people going by. If you’re gonna have a discussion with somebody, I’m gonna back up for my cameraman, keep this little safe difference here, so that we can be sure that we’re doing the right things that we’re keeping safe but we’re not limiting ourselves to no contact at all.

A friend of mine told me about a block party he had the other day and about 7 or 8 neighbors came and they made this giant circle with their lawn chairs, each person spending making a good space between the other people and they shared, they talked about what was going on and it was a meaningful opportunity in their lives to stay connected. I’m doing a Sunday morning zoom call with all my extended family. We’re better connected now than we usually are, so that we can sit down and just connect with each other’s lives. And these video calls, this beautiful technology we’ve got right now, it’s like there, I can see their emotions, I hear their stories, I’m connected to their lives.

And then if you’re like me and you’re lucky enough to have some people living with you and day to day in your life, love them more than ever. You need those people, they need you and in the midst of all this uncertainty, the one thing we can be really clear about is that we’ve got love in our hearts and love to share. And that’s my message to you today. In the midst of all this crazy stuff, I’m loving you broadly out there, my YouTube community, all of you watching, I take this message to heart. Take care of your mental health and if you like this video, press the like button, and share it with your friends and family, and subscribe to my channel, you get a video like this every Sunday morning. Thanks for watching, bye for now.