Creating a Balanced Approach to the Corona Virus
As Americans for the most part we have lived privileged lives. Yes the word privileged is a a relative term, and does accompany a wide socioeconomic range, and yet the majority of us never have never starved to death or had our freedom of choice taken away. The large majority of our population has not experienced previous pandemics of this magnitude in our lifetime.
We now find ourselves in uncharted territory. History dictates that when a person finds himself or herself entering into a situation that seems to threaten their own mortality and those they hold dear, the default behavior is to go into panic aka fight or flight, or for some it is to go into denial.
Examples of these two defense strategies are:
When we go into fear of survival we make our decisions from the amygdala part of our brains as I have discussed in my previous blogs. When we panic and we do things like hoarding food or toilet paper as you have witnessed all over the news and social media.
Of course it is human nature to want to take care of yourself and your loved ones first.
And yet what about our fellow humanity? We have become collectively egocentric and ethnocentric but not a world-centric society.
When stating this I mean no offense to anyone but it is just the way that I see it. I can objectively identify with that part within myself, therefore “I am not living in a glass house casting stones.”
If we go into denial we will minimize the threat and circumstances and not give it any attention. In the case of this pandemic, one might not heed the warning of social distancing, and justify it by saying the media is over exaggerating and thus take unnecessary chances.
“We are not an island unto ourselves,” therefore the choices we make in each moment have a rippling effect not only on you as the individual but in this case on the whole of humanity.
In this moment in time, the pandemic we are facing presents us with an opportunity to stop, slow down and inquire within; and see what is most important to you at the core of your being.
We have all been immersed in the illusion that we are in control life, but during natural disasters and pandemics our illusion gets shattered.
The dismantlement of this illusion presents a grand opportunity for the individual and mankind as a whole.
We now can discern what we have control of and what we don’t have control of.
