HOW TO COPE WITH DARK AND DEADLY TIMES OF SELF–ISOLATION

                  “There is much hope after despair and many suns after darkness.”     -  Rumi

Our lives and social activities have been drastically curtailed and, our world shrunk to the size of our house, by this devastating Coronavirus pandemic.

We are imprisoned in our home. We are bored out of our mind. We are anxious, worried and scared of catching the virus spreading it around, infecting our loved ones and even dying from it.

Even though the lockdown is being relaxed and some businesses are starting to open, we are still afraid to end ourown self–isolation. Because we know deep down that the virus is not contained. Every day, people are getting infected and many are dying. The death toll in the USA so far has passed 100,000.

We struggle with many questions: How safe is it opening up businesses under these circumstances? Am I safe going out without any protection?  What if this new virus comes back with a vengeance, than what are we going to do?

This negative frame of mind and thinking combined with a still unknown self-isolation timeline is started getting to us. Wefeel down, we feel like we lost all of our energy and motivation to do anything.

Every day, listening the news with increasing infections and death rate, politicians with their self- serving rhetoric constantly remind us that we are helpless to face this disaster alone and together with loved ones. We feel that we will never escape the threat of this virus. Such a state of mind could easily trigger anxiety, depression or a joyless existence.

I believe and scientific studies have shown that these types of thoughts and feelings can change the biological response of our body. A positive frame of mind and positive thoughts always enhances the healing powers of our body. Therefore we should train ourselves, by using our willpower, to suppress negative thoughts and always try to think positive. Try to see the positive aspects of every event in our lives. 

To start, we can begin by reflecting in our life, trying to remember all the good things we have accomplished that made us who we are today and be proud of them. This will give us the self-confidence and a positive frame of mind to make us to think positive. Yet we always tend to remember negative things in our life.

We should also try to realize and decide what is the most important at this dark time in life. I believe it is the people that we love and we care about, including our family members, our relatives and our friends. We are all in this pandemic together. We should get in touch with them on daily basis. We should also be kind and helpful to all people around us.

Neuroscientific studies have shown that when we are engaged in generous and altruistic behaviors, specific neural circuits light up in our brain that foster our wellbeing and make us have a more positive outlook in life.

In addition, we should structure our shelter-at-home life to remain mentally and physically active by selecting some achievable new goals. These include learning a new language, carefully reading and studying some of the world’s most famous 100 books or movies to see geniuses behind them, or learn how to cook, or write a book about the story of our life for ourselves just for the joy of thinking and writing. While keeping mentally active, it is just as important to be physically active, as well.

Every day, preferably at the same time, for about 30 minutes we should do some stretching, push-up and sit-up exercises or yoga exercises. Our body likes routine. Make a routine of enjoyable habits. Meditation, spirituality and mindfulness prayer are also very helpful to keep our minds occupied so that we don’t dwell on negative thoughts. 

How can we motivate ourselves and maintain our motivation to do all these things during dark times?

According to renowned Psychologist and author of the famous book Emotional Intelligence by Dr. Daniel  Goleman, there are two kinds of motivation - extrinsic and intrinsic. Extrinsic motivational factors make us do things to obtain an external reward like good grades in school or fame, wealth and power in life. Intrinsic motivational factors are innate; inspiration comes from within. It tend to be much more fulfilling.

We should try to motivate ourselves for both kinds of motivation to develop a deep sense of purpose, hope, meaning and strength during these difficult times.