Suffering from Pandemic Blues? Try This

We’re living in one of those movies where a virus threatens humanity; some of the leaders don’t pay attention to the scientists, and everything looks hopeless while the protagonists' race to save lives and find a cure despite the politicians best efforts to be total idiots.

Then the heroes save the day, all is well, and we can leave the movie theater relieved it was ‘just a movie.’

Except that now we are trapped on the movie screen, the director is gone, and there is no one to yell, “CUT!”

This stuff is REAL.

And it’s scary.

But do you know WHY it’s scary?

Because that’s what we’ve been told and that’s what we’ve decided to think and feel about it.

You’ve maybe heard this story before…

A farmer’s horse ran away. Upon hearing the news, his neighbors came to visit. “Such bad luck,” they said sympathetically.

“Maybe,” the farmer replied.

The next morning the horse returned, bringing with it three other wild horses. “How wonderful,” the neighbors exclaimed.

“Maybe,” replied the old man.

The following day, his son tried to ride one of the untamed horses, was thrown, and broke his leg. The neighbors again came to offer their sympathy for what they called his “misfortune.”

“Maybe,” answered the farmer.

The day after, military officials came to the village to draft young men into the army. Seeing that the son's leg was broken, they passed him by. The neighbors congratulated the farmer on how well things had turned out.

“Maybe,” said the farmer.

The farmer is detached from current events in a way that allows him to reserve judgment and see how things play out. He doesn’t emotionally invest in what is happening, but instead he observes it and moves on with his life.

If he had broken down and sobbed when the horse ran away, would it have brought the horseback? If he had been filled with anguish that his son’s leg was broken, would it have mended the leg?

If you are sad, depressed, or angry over the pandemic, will that bring an end to it? Is there any emotion or state of mind you can use to make the pandemic vanish? Of course not.

The pandemic is here. It’s real. It’s happening. We cannot change any of that.

But what we can change is how we think about it and how we view it.

We can change the reality we live in with a simple shift in our thinking.

“That’s crazy! It’s stupid, nutty, impractical, short-sighted… do you SEE what’s HAPPENING in the world?”

I do. And I understand the emotions, too, because I’ve felt all of them.

But no matter what I think or feel, the pandemic will still be here.

And so I have a choice – the same opportunity you have – of how I will respond and what reality I will live in.

I could choose to focus on fear, being highly emotional and overwhelmed as I binge watch the news and hang on the edge of panic.

I could be unfocused, uncertain of what to do, and playing a wait and see the game.

Or I can be strategy-focused on using this time as a massive growth opportunity for myself and the planet.

In my chosen reality, the pandemic is happening. I am social distancing and taking all precautions. But I am also looking at this as a time of renewal and rebirth, a time to choose my priorities and plan my future and take massive action in my own life.

I am choosing the reality I want to live in right now. We all accept our facts every day of our adult lives. My truth is that we are going through a new time that will result in positive changes and a better world.

No birth labor is natural, but the result is worth the difficulty.

Just as I get to choose how I view my world, you also get to choose the reality you live in.

And you get to choose it every single moment of every single day.