The Futility of Worry: The Courage to Continue in the Face of COVID-19

The bad news continues about COVID-19, and it’s impossible to escape it. This topic is the most talked about topic in an entire generation in the United States. Everywhere you go, it’s the only thing people want to talk about.

Or do we?

Do we really want to talk about COVID-19? That’s today’s question — and I have a few thoughts around just that.

We all feel the social pressure: talk about only the number one thing on people’s minds. We feel like if we don’t speculate about what could happen, or listen intently to someone tell the absolute worst case scenario, that we’re not being “a real friend”. You know the feeling. It’s awkward because you want to change the subject to something else… but you don’t have the courage to do so. The courage. And what is that courage? I propose that the courage we are all not mustering up is to talk about something besides the worst case scenarios with COVID-19.

Ask yourself this question, and you don’t have to tell anyone that answer if you don’t want to:  do you want to talk about COVID-19 and the worse case scenario?  Get alone somewhere (not hard to do in this time of necessary social distancing) and just be quiet. Turn off notifications.  Think for a few minutes, undistracted. Ask yourself if you want to talk about what could happen, what you heard might happen, what all the possibilities are. See what comes to your mind in that quiet moment.  

The human mind is an incredibly powerful machine, force, and creator. It’s a machine in that it works constantly, night and day, and has the amazing ability to imagine, to predict, and to assimilate immense amounts of data. It’s a force in that our thoughts from our mind radiate out so strongly. Have you ever looked at a person — from a social distancing safe distance — and known exactly what they are thinking, and you feel it. You think the same thing. No words spoken; it’s a force that projects itself out and our receptors pick it up, seamlessly. Finally, the human mind is a creator. We are continuing to create a lot of what COVID-19 is becoming.  Sure, we want to deny that last statement.  It’s the virus that is doing the creating, not our minds! Not true. The virus is passed from human to human by a creative decision of the virus carrier. A decision to violate social distancing protocol. A decision to not disinfect, to cough or sneeze out into the air around other people, etc. So, through a decision from our minds, we create much of the cause of the virus. 

That leads right back to where we started: do you really want to talk about COVID-19? Think about it. For most of us, those with the courage to admit it, we don’t want to talk COVID-19 up. We want it to pass. Truth is, it will pass. All viruses pass. They are not permanent in a society. Part of that courage is admitting that this is temporary. All the current inconveniences we are experiencing are temporary. We will get through this together, and that takes courage to admit.

So, today, as we are forced to embrace the new paradigms (reluctantly I admit), think about what you want to give to COVID-19 worst case scenario speculation. Remember the power of your mind: the machine, the force, and the creator that your mind, and my mind, is. And remember that we are going to get through this temporary discomfort. Don’t let the virus do all the creating. Muster up the courage you, and I, have inside. We are in this together, and together we can encourage each other… today.