Coronavirus and your wellbeing

Who would have thought it!  Seems like only yesterday there were so many other things to worry about, Extinction Rebellion were spoiling lawns [Cambridge and Bristol] and we were all flying too much which was ruining the planet! But who’d have thought…!

If you’d said to me in December that Italy would be in lockdown with all the flights cancelled, I’d have said you were barking.  But it’s happened and so has the chaos everywhere else.  So, what’s the best way to preserve your WELLBEING with all this worry is going on?

There are two distinct things going on here.  The first is the challenge of keeping your family safe from the Virus and the second is surviving the economic shock; which affects all the therapists, IT experts, coffee makers and the army of people who serve us and keep our lives going [Cappuccino please 😊.]

But there’s another factor that will influence how anxious you become, and that’s how much you can experience TRUST.  And that’s linked with Confidence.  The more you can TRUST that Public Health England is doing a good job, UK Scientists are the best and – to coin a phrase – ‘It will be OK’, the better placed you are to hear the advice, follow it and ‘do the right thing’.

BTW, you may have noticed a plus side to all this.  I visited a supermarket yesterday and it was like the old days.  People were chatting about toilet paper – as you do – and there was a general consensus that as long as everyone was sensible ‘the virus would sort itself out in the end’.  (I don’t think the conversation included stock-piling, but knowing I had two packs concealed at the bottom of my trolley meant life was very OK 😊.)

So, how do you keep your family safe?  I’d say it’s by doing what the experts in the UK say: isolate if you have symptoms, wash your hands frequently and especially look out for Children and the Elderly.  As the Meerkats would say, Seemples!

How do you survive the economic shock?  Personally, I don’t believe they would let all the independent businesses fail.  There’s too many of us and it would cause a long-term problem for the economy.  So, I believe there’ll be a few Rabbits pulled out of the Budget Hat.  I’m just waiting to see what they are and how they’ll help. Yes, there’s going to be a downturn but it will pick up again when this is over; it’s more a question of hanging on and I do believe we’ll get help and it will be ok in the end.

Sounds good so far, but there are two small Flies in the WELLBEING Pot ready to pull us off track.    The first is a combination of Itchy Feel and Temptation.

I don’t know about you, but as soon as I’m told there’s a new rule to follow, invariably I’ll find a reason it must be broken immediately; for example: not going out. My husband falls into the ‘underlying health conditions’ bracket so it makes sense that we stop at home.  But then, today I needed a Birthday Card for my Nephew so we went to a little local shop that we decided was safer than going to the High Street – probably illogical!  Tomorrow I have a hospital appointment and will need to get some petrol, so we’ll be out again.  So, we’re mostly staying in a bit!  [BTW, we haven’t got any symptoms or met anyone who’s been to Italy or anywhere else for that matter.]

The other fly in the WELLBEING Pot is Continually Questioning whether the advice is right or not.  You’ll have heard people recently saying things like: ‘I think they should close the schools’, ‘I’m not sure about Cheltenham still going ahead’, ‘there aren’t enough beds to look after everyone’, ‘why didn’t they self-isolate people arriving from Italy?’, ‘now we’ll have to cope with a curfew!’.

These may well be valid opinions, but of what help to your WELLBEING are they?  It just leaves you in a state of flux about stuff you can’t change, and that doesn’t help your peace of mind.  It’s back to TRUST and how Confident you are.

So, for now I recommend that you keep washing your hands and observe what’s going on.  It’s like a mystery adventure.  Life as we knew it won’t be the same again because we’ve changed, and perhaps it will be better.  We just have to wait and see.

This morning at 6.00 I heard the birds singing and there’s something reassuring about the dawn chorus.  It always gives me a sense of life carrying on.

So, let’s all find even more examples of stability to steady our Temporarily Rocking Ship.