According to the quote by John Lennon, there are only two motivating forces: love and fear. In these strange and uncertain times, it’s easy to get into a state of fear; that fight or flight reaction that prompts some people to run out to the supermarket and wrestle pensioners to the ground for the last roll of loo paper. It’s fear that creates panic and panic creates irrational behaviour.
We are currently being bombarded with news reports, bulletins, press conferences and expert advice – some of which is contradictory: be prepared to go into lockdown for up to 6 months/we’ll be on top of this in 12 weeks. Stay at home/ go out in the fresh air. Takeaways will stay open/takeaways are going to close because people are standing too close in the queue. Wear face masks/ face masks are useless. It’s a confusing, and potentially worrying time for everyone. It’s easy to slip into a state of fear, panic and anxiety.
But these unhelpful emotions are usually the result of allowing our minds to wander off into all manner of unknown scenarios. We hear that the pandemic is likely to last months so our minds get busy projecting a dystopian future with no food in the cupboard or loo roll in the bathroom. As a result we fly off to Tesco – or Sainsbury’s, or Asad (fill in as applicable) – and buy up enough stocks to last us for the entirety. Which in itself is an unknown and unspecified length of time. The effect is depleted stocks, queues round the block, essential workers unable to buy anything and fights breaking out in the aisles. A pretty shameful state of affairs. And all because we allowed our minds to run riot.
And, it’s counter productive anyway because, when we’re stressed, the immune system’s ability to fight off antigens is depleted: we are more susceptible to infections. The stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline – although useful for getting us out of immediate danger – can, over time, suppress the effectiveness of the immune system leaving us open to the very viruses we fear. By panicking, we are creating the ideal environment for all diseases, not just coronavirus, to flourish.
If we choose the other motivating force: love, how much different might the world be? Love is based on truth; truth is based on reality and reality is what is happening right now. And what’s happening NOW is the only thing we actually know to be a verifiable fact. Anything that is a future event is an unknown. And most of what goes round our minds when we’re panicking is worst case scenarios. i.e. NOT true at this moment.
What we do know to be true is that there is a new virus that is spreading round the world and there is, as yet, no cure or vaccine. And that is the simple truth. We don’t know how many are going to die. At the moment it’s killing fewer than seasonal flu, starvation or cancer. That might change but we simply don’t know. That’s not reality right now. We also know that hand washing and keeping our distanced can stop the spread of the virus – which also goes for colds and seasonal flu by the way. We don’t know the effectiveness of face masks; it’s estimated that they work for about 20 minutes or until they become soggy with our breath. Again: an unknown.
All we can do is deal with what we know to be true and keep ourselves informed of any new developments that might change our reality. And we can make sure that whatever we do is motivated by love, rather than fear: love for ourselves, our families, our communities, our essential workers and the whole planet. Praise people rather than criticising them; send messages of love and hope on social media; if you can go out, smile at one another (from a 2m distance!); send poetry, photographs, pictures, music via the Internet. Keep people’s spirits lifted; suppress the fear not the immune system.
My husband just came back from Tesco – no queues today but no loo rolls or Paracetamol either. But they were giving out free bunches of flowers to every customer. What a lovely gesture to raise people’s spirits.
So, in the words of another great and wise teacher, Yoda (aka George Lucas): “Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.”
Let’s all stay on the `light side’, the side of love and compassion and healing. Let’s keep our minds in the moment. And let’s support ourselves, our families, our communities and our planet to live through this and, hopefully, grow from it.
Keep safe!
Reiki in Wanstead 