What’s on the other side of fear?

Does the Coronavirus frighten you? Is it affecting your behaviour and causing you to behave in ways you’re not proud of?

I was listening to the radio last night and heard a group of Asian students who were studying in the UK talking about how they’d been abused. Abused solely because they were from the part of the world where the coronavirus originated. I was shocked and saddened about how quickly fear can cause us to behave in ways that are xenophobic, aggressive and selfish.

This week I’ve noticed that I’m also in danger of catching the fear virus. Everywhere I look I’m seeing supermarket shelves emptying, people looking nervously at each other and newsfeeds full of ‘end of the world’ scenarios. This can trigger my own fearful mindset and when I’m not careful I automatically expect the worst. I made a plan this week to stock up, to avoid groups of people and on Thursday I started to worry how the next 6 months might look without any income.

I don’t want to be driven by this. It makes me smaller, reactive and less likely to behave in a way that I’m proud of. It narrows my world view, alienates others and skews my perspective.

Instead I want to choose a possibility mindset – one that allows me to assess the situation with more clarity, choose my actions and behaviours and think generously about others. My possibility mindset still allows me to take the situation seriously and take sensible precautions. This is all possible but it becomes difficult to choose when fear prevails.

It can help to think about fear and possibility being constant companions. They both accompany us everywhere but we have a choice which to listen to. Notice which one has the loudest voice and which one you’re listening to.

Have a think about how your fearful mindset is accompanying you today and notice what behaviours it drives. Now pause and think about how you can choose to behave and relate instead. Please do share what strategies work best for you. And, no matter how difficult the coming weeks may be, please don’t feed the fears.