by Nancy Bergeron, RPsych, [email protected]
Creating Resiliency During COVID-19
It would seem the COVID-19 crisis is a form of adversity that many of us are confronted with to varying degrees. What matters is how we interpret and respond to the difficulties and challenges that we face. It is our attitude toward and response to the crisis that can either make or break our experience of it.
Put the Crisis in Perspective
When a crisis strikes, our entire focus is instinctively drawn to the immediacy of its impact on us. That reaction has been hard-wired into us humans through millions of years of evolution. One of the most powerful things we can do in our current situation is to place the crisis in a broader perspective. A perspective that is wider and longer than the perspective that many of us hold, helps put it in a context that is easier for us to wrap our arms around, and that will soften the emotional impact on us. We need to think big picture; COVID-19 is a big part of our lives, but it is not life itself. There are likely many things in our lives that are good. Actively identify both long-term and big-picture examples that force us to lift our gaze off of the immediate crisis and cause us to look around and into the distance of our life.
Embrace the Adversity as a Challenge to Overcome
Whether we like it or not, the COVID-19 crisis is here for a while. We can love it, hate it or embrace it. The most realistic option is to actually embrace the crisis as something that we can turn into a positive experience (to some degree). By embracing the crisis, we choose to not become a victim of it. In doing so, we take the “fork in the road” that will feel much better and also create some benefits out of this decidedly unnerving situation; in other words, turn lemons into lemonade. One of the most difficult aspects of the current crisis is that, because it is truly a danger to many of us, in terms of both our health and our wealth, it triggers our primitive survival instinct and its related fight-or-flight reaction. In other words, we go into threat mode and primordial instincts cause us to protect ourselves. Try to see it as a challenge to be faced head-on, and in the most positive way possible. Along with embracing adversity, viewing COVID-19 as a challenge reorients our thinking, emotions, and actions in a more constructive direction which will make our journey through the crisis a bit more palatable and perhaps even leave us better off after the crisis recedes than we were before.
See the Crisis as an Opportunity
When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters—one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity. Whether a crisis is viewed as a crisis or an opportunity, depends on whether the focus is on what is lost or what can be gained. Our capacity to respond positively to this crisis will be dictated by whether we can let go of the costs and focus on the potential benefits of the crisis. We can adjust our life goals to work within its state of “new normal.” We can see the loss of regular life as a chance to focus on other aspects of our life that have been neglected because we’ve been too busy to address them. We can identify areas we want to work on or improve in our life and focus on developing those areas. We can focus on areas of our life that we didn’t have time for before the crisis (enjoy a hobby that has been neglected, try something new and different, exercise more, or relax more).
When bad things, such as the COVID-19 crisis, happen, it’s easy to have a pity party and dwell on everything that is now missing in our lives or that we have lost. But getting pulled to the “dark side” simply adds insult (you feel terrible) to the injury that has already been caused (e.g., disruption of life, health problems, diminishing investment portfolio). By embracing the crisis, it lays the foundation for hope, optimism, and a positive attitude and approach to it that will help you weather the storm from which there is little protection or escape. One of the best protections against being overwhelmed by the negativity caused by the crisis is to actively generate positive emotions in our life. Let’s be honest. It’s difficult to find positive emotions in the pall of pessimism that the crisis can produce in us. Yet there are many to be had if you look closely enough. In our family, with our friends, in our commitment to our education and career, and continuing our efforts to be the best person we can, despite this substantial interruption, all are ripe for harvesting good feelings that we can use to counteract the bad feelings that we are vulnerable to every day of this crisis.
Seek out love, caring, and empathy from our family and friends. Find fun, joy, excitement, and contentment in our daily activities. And, experience inspiration in our efforts and pride in our progress and accomplishments as we continue to strive toward our life goals.
