The Covid pandemic changed our lives in many ways; some people now suffer with heightened anxiety; others suffer with heightened depression symptoms while others lost familial or friendship ties.
Anxiety was obviously heightened due to the threat of sickness and high potential for death due to coronavirus, and the push of fear from the media. At first the concern might have been real however as time passed, the lack of social interaction, whether it was from people working from home or people not seeing family or friends, social isolation has been the number one cause of social anxiety and depression symptoms of the past two years.
Many of my patients still struggle going to the grocery store, a farmers’ market, friends’ houses, or family gatherings. The shut down was hard for millions of adults, but a few people have stopped to think about the negative a fax that the shutdown has had on kids. Can you imagine how hard it has been on them to not only lose everything that their parents have lost, but also watched their parents go through the loss of everything that was normal to them and that gave them joy.
Few people stop to consider what this is done to the children around the nation in the world. While adults have suffered and tried to make the last two years seem normal, kids schooling, and social activities have been pushed by the wayside.
Another aspect of this that most people don’t consider is the fact that many families have been divided through the pandemic and the vaccine. As political beliefs and health and wellness differences have torn families apart, it is the children that suffer the most as their foundation has already been crushed, now they have to deal with losing family members. As families have grown divided, tensions have risen between family members as well as spouses which has also been traveling for children.
Through the chaos of the past two years few have stopped to think about the negative impact that the pandemic shut down will have on kids. I have sat through therapy sessions listening to kids and teens cry about the things that they have been through in the past two years, many of the situations that could’ve been avoided if the shutdown had not occurred and the political climate had not risen.
It seems as though people act and behave in a way where they think their children either do not notice or do not take note of their behavior or the negative implications of their behavior and what that means to their life.
Are you someone that can think of something to do and then will have the motivation to get up and do it? Most people have a hard time finding the motivation to get up and do the things that they want to do if they give it too much thought, even a second thought can be enough to persuade you to not do the original thing that you thought of doing.
Our brains are hard wired to search for things that will hurt us. This is a self-protective measure that it was deep within your cognitive function. Fear resides within this area because it is thought to protect us. If we fear something, whether it’s good or bad, we likely well that do it, therefore, we are protected from something that might hurt us.
Our brain doesn’t know whether something is good or bad for us, it just goes into self-protection mode when we think of a task that might be new or require a lot of effort. If our brain in steals enough fear or doubt within us we will likely dismiss the idea of doing the thing we originally wanted to do. For many people starting a business can be very scary and seem like something that is unattainable.
Therefore, when one has a thought of starting a business, they might get excited at the possibilities but may think of all of the things that they have to do to make the business a reality and they might talk themselves out of even trying to start that business.
In this example, the brain has prompted the release of fear and doubt which has caused some of her sin to move from thinking about all of the possibilities and being excited about owning a business to thinking about all of the work and effort is going to take to start that business, as well as all of the negatives that might happen when they start that business, and they moved from being really excited to being full of fear and out.
This fear and doubt is an asset to protect us from something that might potentially hurt us, however, if we listen to this year too often, it can hold us back from doing a lot of really fun and exciting things in our lives. This is the type of fear that exists to keep you from getting too close to an edge of a really high cliff for example.
If we had no fear of heights or being hurt or dying from a fall, we would get hurt far more often. Once you learn how this fear presents itself to you in your mind and within your life, you will be able to override it and hack yourself through it to move past it when the fear is irrational.
Meditation is a great way to work your brain muscle and T-shirt to focus on what you want it to versus your mind wandering and dwelling on things that are irrational or perhaps other peoples’ fears that might have taken on as your own. Sometimes when we spend a lot of time with people that complain or talk a lot about things that they are fearful of, we can take on their fears as our own.
For example, within the past two years many people have been fearful of coronavirus while others have been cautious but still out and about living their lives without much fear at all. However, if you spend a lot of time with a friend who is fearful and you watch the news excessively which promotes fear as a motivator rather than faith and optimism, you may be persuaded to let other peoples’ fears become your own.
Through quiet time and reflection, and guided meditations, you can learn to distinguish what fears are actually your own and what fears you may have that started with other people, you can also learn what fears are irrational and what fears do you want to intentionally try to overcome.
When you try to, and start to, overcome some of these fears it will be easier and easier to overcome other fears as your confidence in yourself and the world around you will grow as you overcome one fear at a time.
The opposite is true of course as well. If you give into your fears they will grow and you will notice that you are avoiding things out of fear of failure or a fear of being hurt. Remember that whatever you focus on is how you’re going to feel, so if you are more focused on your fears you will have more fears and if you focus on your strengths and solutions to those fears and how things might turn out well, you will notice more and more things turn out well and you will notice your confidence growing.
A fear-based life is also extremely dangerous for your immune system because that negative or fear-based thinking can actually shut down your immune system causing you more mental and physical illness.
However, if you try to be positive, optimistic, and focus on solutions your brain and body will release different chemicals that promote and maintain mental health and wellness as well as an increase in function of your immune system and physical health and well-being.