Don’t Be Paralyzed By Fear

THE WOODLANDS, TX -- The pandemic of Covid-19 has turned everyone’s world upside down. We are faced with fear of financial insecurity, fear of loss of our health or the lives of loved ones and a loss of “normalcy”. It is normal to react with fear, anxiety, sadness, blame, negativity, worry or panic. It is ok to cry. But we cannot get stuck in those emotions. We must move on. Being stuck in a state of negative emotions will take its toll on us physically and emotionally and it can harm relationships.

The common emotions to loss or change are denial then anger then acceptance and then action. It would be nice if these occurred in a linear fashion, but it is common to vacillate. The important thing is that we work toward moving forward.

A friend who recently lost her job due to the current situation, understandably felt overwhelmed with grief. Instead of wallowing in her grief, she looked outside of herself; purchased two loaves of bread and some bologna, made sandwiches and took them to the homeless community. She received so many words of appreciation and this buoyed her up to continue on.

Epictetus said, “It’s not what happens to us, it’s how we react to it”. We all have been given a gift of time whether we welcomed it or not. Time with our families, time to catch up on projects, time to slow down and think.
Here are some suggestions to reflect on. What do you like about your life? What would you like to change? What are your new goals? Are you the person you would like to be?

Now is a good time to restructure our mindset. Let’s focus on developing healthy habits and getting rid of an unhealthy lifestyle. Let’s reevaluate our sense of purpose. Let’s set some goals; family goals, personal goals, spiritual goals, business goals, lifestyle goals. And finally this a good time for personal development time.

So let’s move forward to positive emotions of love, joy, faith, hope, pride empathy and happiness. When we come out of this world changing event of 2020, perhaps the world will be a better place. Your world can be. It’s your choice.