Do you remember the Hong Kong Flu?

Most people alive today lived through it and they can’t say they had memorable images of it.  That flu killed 100,000 people in the U.S. and a million worldwide in 1968 and yet we had no way to be bombarded by how bad it was every minute of the day.

Today is different.  Another virus but a different way to stay scared – endless updates, stories about everything from virtual dating to how divided the country is (again).

The thing is people have been through pandemics before but never with so much intense focus that causes needless anxiety.

The cure is turn off the phone at times during the day, don’t watch news channels that cause anxiety instead of giving information and celebrate how well you’re doing in an inconvenient situation.

To borrow a news radio phrase:  You give yourself 22 minutes, and we’ll give you a break from anxiety and negative thinking.

The online publication Axios is requiring each of their colleagues to take mental health days from time to time.

They close their laptop, clear their mind and come back fresh another day to write stories.

Other execs took a day off and went fishing and turned their phone off for an entire day.   Off, not silenced.

Because of the added stress of coronavirus, now is a good time to brainstorm for ideas on how to take a mental health day that works for you.

“Flowers play with the wind, light, and bees, while roots work hard in the dark.  Some days we are the flower; other days we are the root.  Feel grateful if you are a flower today; feel purposeful if you are the root today.” – Amit Sood, MD

Physical distancing (the correct term) will likely be around for many more years but there are opportunities to increase social engagement even while on lockdown.

Use the down time to reconnect with people who matter.

A note to friends that are otherwise valued but somehow left out of our regular lives.

A FaceTime call to someone forgotten.

My favorite:  Some of my NYU students send a 2-3 minute video updating me on how they are getting along.  They never forget to ask about me and my family.  They record them in QuickTime and I can’t tell you how much of a smile they bring to my face.  I look forward to them.

Self-isolation is the perfect time to do all the things we always say we never have enough time to do.

None other than the Mayo Clinic is now addressing the anxiety we are feeling due to being too connected digitally to the coronavirus.

Limit exposure to news media. Constant news about COVID-19 from all types of media can heighten fears about the disease. Limit social media that may expose you to rumors and false information. Also limit reading, hearing or watching other news, but keep up to date on national and local recommendations. Look for reliable sources such as the CDC and WHO.

Being too digital can have its disadvantages.

What comes over us when we hear about the “helpers” who are staffing makeshift hospitals, medical people who are working around the clock and those who are lifting the spirits of others during this crisis.

The story of a doctor who put their own iPhone next to a patient separated from loved ones due to contamination issues so that she could hear music.

Or the doctor who held the hand of a patient in her off-time so that the patient would not be alone.

This is where hope is generated.

No matter how tough things get, looking to the “helpers” renews hope.

“Models Warn of Doubling Death Toll by June”
“3000 Daily Deaths by June”
“Second Wave Fears Grow”
“Cameras Monitoring Masks and Distancing”
“April Jobs Report to Show Biggest Unemployment Rate Ever”

Enough!

Yes, this virus is virulent and worthy of taking precautions to avoid, but the mental part – the constant drip-drip-drip of bad news needlessly feeds anxiety.

The pandemic is the story of the century for media and online clickbait but constant bad news can cause post-traumatic stress disorder.

From the CDC website today, a headline that is barely ever repeated or retweeted:

“For most people, the immediate risk of becoming seriously ill from the virus that causes COVID-19 is thought to be low.”

Exercise great care to follow the instructions of medical science to reduce risk and change the narrative every once in a while to put the overload of media and digital scare tactics in their proper place.

One of my NYU students sent me a video yesterday of himself isolated in his Brooklyn apartment.

We’ve been having class on Zoom as every other school is doing during these trying times.  His hair was long but whose isn’t these days?

His message is worth repeating.

Quarantining by himself with no other person around for almost two months is driving him crazy.

But what is saving him is to smile.

No one can see him, but as he says it makes a big difference.  We have the choice of frowning or smiling and he found that smiling helps make isolation more tolerable.

We know smiling in front of others makes both parties feel better, but now we know that something so simple has benefits to us even alone.

No one has ever worried their way out of financial trouble.

Fear of unemployment is understandable – we’ve all likely been there – but it isn’t the end.

As a matter of fact, it’s the beginning.

It takes the irritation of sand to make a pearl and it sometimes takes real adversity to force us to make a beautiful new life.

In researching my book about the advantages of disadvantages, it was startling how successful people actually needed career disruption to start their good fortune.

To find out how badly they wanted something new and different.

To constantly test their resolve to see how much they were willing to do to get it.

In sports, when you lose a heartbreaker, you believe you will win the next time.

That’s an attitude that will work off the field, too.

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When would we ever want something to be normal except when we’re scared for our lives?

Do you want normal pay or do you want pay that is commensurate with your abilities?

Do you really want to go back to not having enough time for family after you’ve taken this time in isolation to realize what you had almost let get away?

Even the things you might want back like shopping, dining, an education, a doctor’s appointment may have changed already thanks to online capabilities.

And will social distancing keep us away from people emotionally instead of providing 6 feet of physical separation?

The “New Normal” is probably a misnomer for abnormal – who wants that?

In every part of our lives we rarely aspire to normal.

While we have time on our hands, plan for exceptional by cooperating with the inevitable and aiming for better.

If this has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can start receiving DayStarters every day here. 

I don’t mind reaffirming I can get scared about COVID-19.

Constantly revising death tolls don’t cheer me up.

The obsession about being locked down is worse than actually being locked down.

If we were given a week’s vacation at a remote spa, we’d probably want to stay another week.

Time alone is different than too much time to think.

TV wants to hook us for ratings, digital wants to make us keep clicking so they can serve more ads.

The facts are that 99% of the people who get this virus will recover.

About 97% of the total population will not get the coronavirus at all.

We’re not doomed, we have the power to reject those with agendas by remembering the facts.

If this has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can start receiving DayStarters every day here. 

Have you been hearing people in lockdown saying they’re getting lazier?

Eating more than they should, watching too much Netflix?

We’re buying into the media obsession with being self-quarantined.

We’re missing the advantages of having the one thing we’ve always wanted.

Who among us hasn’t said, I wish I had more time.

The cure for the lazy virus is a routine and lists of goals.

Get dressed every morning – my students using online classes often show up for the online class in lounging clothes or propped up in bed.

While everyone else is complaining, you’re looking at an opportunity to get ahead.

If this has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can start receiving DayStarters every day here. 

Especially now when we are starved for human contact.

“Continue to be the fine person you are”.

It affirms another through total acceptance.

It doesn’t require another word or explanation – or perfection.

Works well when someone is doubting themselves.

Is the ultimate compliment when you are among many others praising someone special.

And this one phrase works as inspiration for you when your confidence is slipping.

If this has been forwarded to you by a friend, you can start receiving DayStarters every day here. 

For every fear thought, think of one that exemplifies confidence.

For every discouragement, think optimism.

For every inconvenience, focus on gratitude.

For despair, hope.

Lately, we have been living 24/7 illness.

The medical remedy is simple and clear.

Now move on to the emotional prescription:  for every negative thought or anxious feeling, remember to balance it with one of optimism.

Never underestimate the mind for dealing with anxiety, stress and trauma.

If you would like to start your day with DayStarters, click here.

Imagine if doctors told their critically ill patients that they were doomed, without options, absent of hope.

I dare say it would not be the path to recovery.

In times when we get bad news on our phones, watches, TVs, social media and in constant conversation, it’s important not to forget hopes and dreams.

Divide 30 or 60 days of isolation into the number of days we have to live on this earth and it presents itself as a minor inconvenience.

Make that 30 to 60 days useful and you’ve made lemonade out of a lemons.

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It’s not social distancing that we want –  it’s physical distancing to avoid illness.

An even worse disease will come over us if we mistake social distancing with physical separation.

Now more than ever those who reach out to touch others emotionally are curing their own ills as well.

More touch, more concern, more listening, more empathy, more encouragement, more love and more understanding is not restricted to 6 feet or less.

If you would like to start your day with DayStarters, click here.

If you’re anxious about physical distancing, there is a way to look at this inconvenience as a positive.

Adversity and pain are transformational.

They are the things that help us grow, advance and correct our life’s path.

Good days are coming after we use this alone time to better understand our own personal transformation.

If you would like to start your day with DayStarters, click here.

6 feet back, yes.  No to pulling away emotionally.

Constraints make sense.  But it’s not negotiable that I postpone my hopes and dreams for even 30 days.  There’s plenty I can do even constrained.

Accepting uncertainty about the future goes with the territory.  Fearing the future is not negotiable.  Not even for a minute.

Loneliness can be expected.  But that doesn’t mean that I can’t use alone time to reengage all the people I have not had adequate time for in the past.

Depression is natural, but it is not negotiable to dwell on it.  Instead trade depression for expressions of gratitude, an elixir for unhappiness.

In this time of uncertainty, some things are given.

Some are not negotiable.

If you would like to start your day with DayStarters, click here.

During the bubonic plague that killed over 200 million people in Europe and Asia, William Shakespeare did some of his best writing in isolation.

King Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra.

Shakespeare didn’t have the internet, social media, Zoom, Uber Eats, Amazon or any of the conveniences we have during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Isaac Newton, the father of modern science, focused on things beyond gravity when he had to endure the Great Plague of London.

No one likes isolation but it does have its advantages.

Seeing our present predicament as one bad breaking news story after another doesn’t change the outcome.

Only we can do that by focusing on the 99% who should they get coronavirus will recover and use the extra time on our hands more wisely.

I know people say there is nothing you can do about being sequestered in your own home or apartment, but there is.

First on the list is what you always say you wish you had more time for because now you do.

Live by Netflix, get lazy by Netflix.  One reason we’re bored is because passively bingeing is not challenging the part of our brain that used to be stimulated before the virus.

Write down goals and accomplishments every day.  Accomplishments make you feel good and they can be done from anywhere.

As a radio program director, my kids were either lucky or tortured to hear their father run a “liner” every half hour for them as I did on my stations (actually four times an hour, but let’s not quibble).

I’d tell them what’s coming up next – “in a little while, we’re leaving for the Flyers game” or “I’m going to read you a book and tell you a story after your bath”.  Hardly an hour went by without me doing a “life promo”.  The idea is to look forward.

Confinement doesn’t seem as bad when we cultivate the ability to look forward – for now, the little things around our homes or apartments.  Later, the things in life that time alone has made us want to pursue.