Societal and Mental Wellbeing: Remaining Nimble and Flexible in a Changing Environment
I was wondering when I would be compelled to sit down and write about the importance of societal wellbeing, i.e., the ability to actively participate in a thriving community, culture and environment. Well, there is no time like the present. The past three weeks have been playing out like scenes from a movie. COVID-19, aka the novel coronavirus, has sucked the air (no pun intended) out of our collective consciousness. Initially, I was pretty calm about it, listening to the facts. I was determined not to cancel my upcoming vacation and was still moving out and about in New York City.
I am an entrepreneur, so when I am not working from home, I am at medium to large events and one-on-one meetups so that I can learn from and connect with others. This has been an important part of my social wellbeing practice. (Don’t isolate myself!) I live a healthy lifestyle so I figured that as long as I stayed committed to my healthy mind-body practices, I would be good to go. I continued to meet with my personal trainer (sanitizing equipment and being mindful of touching my face, of course) and meeting in-person with my septuagenarian therapist because he said he would make the call if he didn’t think it was safe to do so. To give myself more space to process my feelings about everything that is happening, I have continued with my journaling and meditation.
What is happening to me? Our society?
As more information came out in the media, I limited the number of emails I sent last week to allow folks the space to navigate whatever was in front of them, i.e., business continuity planning, addressing school closures and changing child care needs. Apparently, other folks were doing the same thing because the majority of emails I received last week had “COVID-19” in the subject.
Why did I start to go into panic mode last Friday?
Well, having CNN on in the background all day every day did not help. I am a self-proclaimed “high information person”; however, there is a point of diminishing returns and I reached my peak. The anxiousness started creeping into my gut. I knew that it was time to unplug. My family seemed annoyed that I had not yet cancelled my vacation plans due to my past health issues. My husband and I finally put the kibosh on that. I started receiving insider information on the state of COVID-19 in NYC and ordered my husband to go to Costco with the words, “And do not come back empty handed!” He waited 45 minutes in line and witnessed people fighting over carts. What is happening to me? Our society?
