Being Optimistic in times of Pandemic- Corona 2020
In the year 2000 Dr Toshihiko Maruta of the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, USA, reported that optimists have a longer life span than pessimists. Maruta found that people with a positive outlook on life live on an average 19 percent longer than those who are miserable.
Twenty years back Dr Maruta did not anticipate what the world would be facing and with what intensity. Maybe a scenario where a potentially harmful virus affecting all countries alike and spreading like a pandemic was suited more for a thriller movie than one’s reality today.
People with their routine lives have been warned and coerced to stay at home and worse work from home. World over, barring some professions, everyone has to now get used to this transition in work while carefully balancing work-life balance which everyone knows is a delicate harmony often difficult to achieve.
Uncertainty of events and overload of information is not letting peace within, so the question is can we be optimistic in time of Pandemic the one that we are going through- CORONA 2020?
I think while going through stream of messages and newspaper articles, we are actually living through a moment in history- something we grew up reading in books and always wondered how people back in those days did it. Their trials, tribulations and finally achieving a little more than success- they became die hard optimistic who later guided others of what life really means.
Optimism is something we are born with like a disposition and something we cultivate over the years with experience and endurance to life.
To be honest it can be very difficult but not impossible to keep your head focused on end goals when there is so much uncertainty and constant restless news that keeps shaking our faith that it will all be fine one day.
With the help of theory on Optimism by Snyder, I could technically help readers to stay aloft this crucial time of despair and keep it going.
- Goal– (What we want to happen?) To be safe from Corona Virus
- Pathways– (How are we going to get there?) To social distance, keep hygiene at all times, self-isolation for some days as directed by the government knowing it’s in our best interest
- Agency– (How much motivation do we have in going after that goal?)
- Rigorous self-isolation and hygiene to be followed at home, with self and others
- Thorough planning of keeping work and home life balance which could falter given kids and spouse being at home- look for quick fix solutions and plan your day in advance,
- Allowing moments of letdown- nothing beats stress like exercise even at home,
- There is a difference in snacking and mindless binging both in spreading news and eating. Avoid Junk from everywhere, munch on something healthy(apple and a book) once in a while
- Genuinely look within on doing things you always wanted to do but couldn’t because of lack of time; to start with spending least five minutes in silence (sit in one place and focus on your heartbeat),
It is possible that we won’t get everything right step by step as explained in theory, but even if we reach halfway in that attempt, we bring back some satisfaction of making that honest effort to hold self and significant others steady at times when we needed our selves the most.
Optimism is not only a theoretical construct, it is something we need right now, we need to be more hopeful to return back to that normal life’s madness because we have lost ourselves somewhere there. This Pandemic will change us (hopefully) for better, pause and think how we can transform ourselves when we got to spend the maximum time alone with self.
“Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn out“
John Wooden
