Remaining Sane and Healthy in Crazy Times

It’s difficult to impossible to write a normal blog post when the world may be coming to an end — at least according to some people. In the age of community journalism, it’s difficult to separate the truth from the rumors and flat-out misinformation.

Is the population being culled so only the strong survive? Did the government plant this little bug on societies around the world to show us who’s the boss? Do politicians have even bigger secrets than we ever imagined? And is social distancing really a thing?

Boiling It Down

Just a few weeks ago, we were told that we’re becoming a society of isolationists, what with our social media addictions and reliance on technology. Mental illness and mass shootings were being blamed on people not being hugged enough and for listening too long to internet trolls.

Today, we’re told not to touch, to go online for any human interaction and to rely on social media for our personal interactions. Meanwhile, many pundits and politicians are taking advantage of the coronavirus plague to boost themselves as saviors with golden tickets and lifesaving cures.

The only sane step for those of us who believe we still have free will and an ability to think critically is to find the kernels of truth to believe, while trusting our instincts to survive. In fact, many of the measures we’re asked to take are just good practices for any day of any year, such as:

• Wash your hands after being in public
• Don’t kiss strangers
• Stay away from contagious sick people
• Boost your immunity with healthy foods
• Exercise and get plenty of rest to stay in tip-top health

How to Get Right-Sided

When you live in an upside-down world, all the blood rushes to your head, threatening to make you dizzy at the very least — or make your head explode at the very worst. In these dystopian times when we’re told not to trust anyone, to only visit friends and family online, and to stay home alone to obsess over the latest news and statistics, it’s important to find your true north.

To maintain your sanity and your good health, we recommend that you just take a beat, breathe deeply and relax. There’s lots of good advice for how to weather the upside downiness of it all:

• Clean your closets and your computer files
• Work in the yard to plant flowers or tidy up
• Join exercise classes online and Zoom in with your besties

But it may take a bit more to ride this thing out to its final destination when the world turns back on its own right-sided axis. Until that happens, perhaps one of these ideas can keep you from tipping over so far that it may be hard to get right again:

• Respect everyone’s right to choose. As if there isn’t enough on TV to get all worked up about, don’t add to your stress by freaking out about how others, including your loved ones, choose to react. Know that everyone responds to disaster differently. Some may feel the need to shelter in place, while others prefer to be out where they’re still able to go. Take care of yourself and your family as best as you know how and allow your friends, families, neighbors and colleagues to do the same without sending your stress levels through the ceiling.
• Share your good fortune. While it’s unhealthy to always compare ourselves to others to measure our own success, this may be the best time to practice a little comparison, because chances are you have it better than many others. And you’ll get by with one less roll of TP if it means your neighbor gets one roll from your stockpile. Just as the COVID-19 virus pays it forward by making people sick, so the world heals by paying forward the little things — one roll at a time.
• Follow your instincts. If it sounds crazy, it probably is. Getting worked up about conspiracies and doomsday predictions is worse for your health in the long — and short — run than any super-bug. When you hear so-called news that just doesn’t ring true for you, then make up your mind not to buy it. You can bet that one thing is not upside down right now — and that’s the fact that shysters and fear-mongers are in their glory, and they’re out in full force. Don’t believe everything you read and don’t get taken by scammers who use this fearful time to boost their own bank accounts.
• Go easy on yourself. If you happen to wake up one morning in the full grip of fear, know that it’s OK to spend the whole day under the covers crying. When a day goes by and you’ve done nothing but binge-watch Netflix, give yourself a break and let it be. If you turn to comfort food for a day and find yourself eating mashed potatoes and fried bread for dinner and consuming an entire half-gallon of ice cream for dessert, don’t beat yourself up. As long as your unhealthy habits are sporadic responses to stress for a day or two, it won’t hurt nearly as bad as the self-loathing that accompanies the splurges.

Balance, flexibility and moderation are the key principles that help get you through each day. And while you may stress out about three days: yesterday, today and tomorrow, we still have only one day to live at a time: this one. So live it to the best of your ability. Don’t worry about what happened yesterday and realize tomorrow will come soon enough.

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