COVID-19 Anxiety and I

COVID-19 and I

Everywhere, I hear people talking about COVID-19 and how fast it is affecting people across the world. 

Millions of messages of fear via social media are spreading faster than the virus. Multiple articles being posted everywhere, no matter what direction I turn my eyes to.

I had to turn myself off, disconnect from social media to shield my mental health. With all this information indigestion, I was getting caught into corona-anxiety.

It Is Real, Now What?

We cannot dodge reality. These are different times. We all need to protect ourselves, our families and be respectful of our community by avoiding crowds and keeping social distance. I get it.

That said, we do not control what we don’t control. 

At this point, if we choose to live our days with anxiety, doubt, and despair, it will not help anyone, but it will, for sure, damage our own minds.

People diagnosed with lupus learn to deal with fear and uncertainty every day. 

We must avoid crowds, wash our hands all the time while taking tons of medications that prevent our system from protecting our bodies. Above all, we need to deal with the fact that no matter how well we behave, eat, exercise, we may get a flare anyway. But you know what, we adapt and learn to push through it.

I mentioned in previous blogs, such as Self-talk and 5 Steps to Practice Self Awareness that accepting the fact that we can only control our thoughts has been an act of freedom to me. It stopped me from being trapped on ‘what ifs’ and stop living. I don’t want to be a living dead person.

I decided to write this blog as a message of hope again. It is a friendly reminder that our civilization has been through pain, surrender, deadly diseases, and prevailed. Stronger, every-single-time.

Bright Side, Where?

Yesterday was the first day of Spring. The first time in the last century it arrived early in the year, how symbolic is that?

Spring means rebirth, new beggings. It’s nature’s words to show us that even the leafless trees come back to life, and small buds will soon be beautiful flowers. 

Here, the silence of the winter is replaced with the cute noises of birds and squirrels. 

Hope

This is the first time the generation of our parents and grandparents experience something like this. It is a silent war. An invisible battle that can reach anyone, at any time, equalizing and connecting all of us. We are not sure how to win this yet.

Nevertheless, it is also an invisible battle that happens inside our minds. Our thoughts, beliefs are being challenged. The victory in this war does not come from how much we have in our banks, or how many pounds we can lift. It comes from inside, our core, our inner strength.

Our mindset is the biggest and most potent weapon to win this battle. It rules our sanity, our perception of life, our mental health.

Let’s follow the CDC guidelines, wash our hands, avoid crowds, protect ourselves, so we can preserve our neighbors. 

But above all, let’s sanitize our thoughts, disinfect our words, so they bring love, peace, and hope to everyone, starting with ourselves. 

Challenge

I want to pose a challenge. Every time you wash your hands or clean your house, create a loving thought to yourself and to the world. 

We are together on this. Stay strong. Hope and love are contagious.

Yours truly,

Hope

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