Preserving vitality and sanity amidst all of the COVID-19 negativity

"Where there's life, there's hope". These words, famously echoed by Stephen Hawking, have never been more apt than in the situation we currently find ourselves in.

The world is going through one of the worst crisis in modern history - healthcare, economic, political, etc., all happening at the same time, and it is difficult to predict when things will get back to normal, if things will ever get back to normal or what the new normal would be.

There is an overwhelming amount of information that is being circulated across various media platforms. The substance of the information overload ranges from the educative, to the humorous. However, a significant amount of the information that comes to the mainstream are about negative occurrences around the world.

A lot of negativity is being passed around in the form of news and statistics. While it is important to stay informed about what is going on around the world, it is also important to recognise the impact that all this negativity may be having on your state of mind.

Keeping a positive mindset and maintaining vitality - as difficult as it may seem, given all that is going on - is of utmost importance, if we are to come out of this crisis with our sanity intact. Otherwise, the global economy may recover from one form of depression (economic), whenever that may be, to find itself in another (human or mental).

So far, my life has been great, my family is safe and healthy, I have not lost my job, my portfolio did not suffer too much from the market crash, most of my friends and their families are safe and healthy, my colleagues are safe and healthy, yet, yesterday, I found myself feeling exhausted and sad.

This sadness was beyond the sadness I had been feeling from knowing that people were dying daily all over the world, or knowing that so many people had lost their jobs or have had to take a pay-cut due to the Coronavirus pandemic.

I attempted to trace the source of that emotion and I figured that it has been building up for a couple of days, due to everything that has been happening (including the above), but was finally pushed to the surface by the news that crude oil prices had slipped below $0 per barrel. 

I did some research on how to stay positive in a negative world and, luckily, there are lots of resources on this topic. From going through a couple of them, here is a summary of some of the tips I found useful:

• Reach out to loved ones (family members, friends, etc), make sure they are okay and share positive memories;
• Try to develop and maintain a daily routine, to bring some order to the otherwise order-less world;
• Focus on what you can control (diet, choice of media / materials that you consume, words and vocabulary, etc.);
• Engage in fun activities that can be done within social-distancing rules;
• Stay healthy - do some exercise within social distancing guidelines (indoors, if exercising outdoors is not allowed in your city);
• Consume more humorous materials (funny videos on YouTube and Instagram, or Comedy TV shows such as the Big Bang Theory, Modern Family, Friends, How I Met Your Mother, etc);
• Limit your intake of news and media, especially if you cannot filter out the negative from the positive;
• Do things that make you happy, an old hobby, a new hobby, etc.

Whatever you do, do not take your health for granted - take care of your mental health just as much as you care for your physical health. Only the living will see the other side / come out of this crisis and your mind will likely be your most valuable asset. Where there is life, there is hope.