Surviving the Covid-19 crisis and the Lockdown

The current global pandemic has created a bleak optimism for the future (life will never be the same again) and the initial euphoria that the 'lockdown will end it all' is dwindling and our patience with being locked at home is fast running out. Some of us are wondering "will this ever end" or "When will I be able to go out of the house"? Some people may be entering a phase of high anxiety, deep concern and a psychological trauma of not being able to lead a normal life. Millenialls, being highly social, may be dreading that they not be able to 'chill' with friends the way they used to earlier.

When nothing in the world is looking upbeat, what can you do to survive the Covid-19 crisis and the lockdown and come out stronger?

Three books give us great insights into surviving these tough times

1.      Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

2.      What to say when you talk to yourself by Dr. Shad Helmstetter

3.      Positivity by Dr. Barbara L. Fredrickson

Man’s Search for Meaning

Victor Frankl survived the holocaust of World War II. In the book, he recounts the horror of his days as a prisoner in one of the concentration camps and the life lessons he learnt. Frankl says that all those who survived the concentration camp had one thing in common. They believed that 'they had something significant yet to achieve in life' - something they thought only they can accomplish. That dream or vision of accomplishment is what kept their hopes high, is what kept them alive in a situation that mankind had never seen.

The Covid-19 is a probably the worst global crisis since the WWII (& I am not suggesting that the lockdown is the same as a concentration camp; it can't and never will be) and Frankl's lessons can help us build hope for a better, brighter future. Can you paint a vivid picture of all the accomplishments that you want to achieve when the situation eases? What are those accomplishments? How will you start? what will you do next? Who all will help you in accomplishing it? How will you know that you have achieved your goal? How will you celebrate your accomplishment?

What to say when you talk to yourself

In this life-changing book, Helmstetter says that as much as 77% of what you tell yourself may be working against you. He highlights that external solutions are temporary and through his simple yet revolutionary technique of 'self-talk' you can reverse negative programming and fill your life with new, vital energy.

Self-talk is nothing but the power to attract good things by envisioning them, by talking aloud about them to yourself. Self-talk involves conditioning your mind with positive thoughts about your personal habits, feelings and emotions. Self-talk involves talking to yourself about the behaviours, emotions, feelings that you want to demonstrate. The key steps involved are:

1. Write down the challenges you want to overcome / behaviours you want to improve eg: quit smoking or be more responsible or build your self-esteem or stop procrastinating etc
2. Next, write down how you would behave / feel if you had overcome the challenge. Eg: what behaviours will indicate that you have quit smoking? How would you behave if you were taking more responsibility in your life? What behaviours would demonstrate that you have a high self-esteem? What would be your behaviours if you were not procrastinating but doing things on-time?
3. Make sure you write these behaviours in the present tense (as if you were doing it, right now)
4. Make sure that the behaviours are positively worded Eg: "not eat junk food" is negatively worded, instead say "eat healthy food like ..."
5. Once the self-talk script is ready, you must read out the script to yourself daily or even multiple times a day and see the change in your life.

The book gives ready-made scripts for improving certain behaviours, inculcating specific habits. All successful people in the world condition their mind to visualize the positive outcome and self-talk is one the best ways to condition your mind.

So, once you have created a vivid picture of all the important things you want to accomplish once the situation becomes normal, can you write down what behaviours will you demonstrate that will indicate that you have achieved your goal. Write them down as if it were happening right now and read it again and again through the day!

Positivity

In her landmark research, Dr Barbara Fredrickson, discovered that experiencing more of positive emotions conditions people's minds to become more resilient & gritty towards adverse conditions and enables them to effortlessly achieve what they could only imagine.

She introduces ten forms of positivity: joy, gratitude, serenity, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love.

She defines a 3:1 positivity ratio as a key tipping point in one's life. What it means is that for every negative emotion that you experience, you must experience at least three positive emotional experiences. If you maintain the ratio of three-to-one (or more) of positive vs negative emotions, your life will flourish.

Now, amid this pandemic we are constantly being bombarded by negative news regarding the increase in Covid-19 cases and deaths across the world and then there is further despondency created by the lockdown bringing the economy to a grinding halt and companies cutting salaries and jobs and small/medium enterprises going bankrupt etc. Can we compensate these negative emotions (by three times or more) with positive emotions generated by thinking of our future accomplishments and how we will achieve them?

These three books, together, cook up a perfect recipe for overcoming not only the current Covid-19 pandemic but any adversity that you may be facing. Create a purpose in your life by identifying what you want to achieve, visualize it day-in and day-out, write down a self talk of how you will achieve (make it positively worded and in the present tense, as if it were happening now). Use this positive visualization and self-talk so many time in a day so that you overcome any negativity by three times or more.