Written by: Patricia Faust, MGS, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
It looked like we were on the road to recovery. The world was starting to breathe sighs of relief regarding the spread of the pandemic. We here in the United States were finding joy as we resumed our normal lives. But it was just in this return to normalization that we were caught off-guard by our feelings and emotions. All the losses we had sustained, the isolation we felt, and the accommodations we made to survive this pandemic resulted in open wounds.
At this point in time when everything is falling apart again how are we doing? We have a few crises that we can choose from, all of which can bring us to our knees. After a year of intense stress many of us are at the burnout stage and unable to function. Who are the people that experienced this intense stress and fear but have managed to show resilience in a fractured recovery? And who are the people who cannot rally and even function day-to-day?
How specifically does our mind respond to a crisis? Mindfulness experts Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, show how the mind responds to a crisis is a choice that we control. All of us are involved in this crisis. We have been witnessing throughout the world, the spread of the COVID virus, and been witnessing and experiencing the spread of worry, anxiety, and instability. Our brain naturally goes to the negative side of any event. Focus and concentration become difficult to maintain. Hougaard and Carter’s study found that 58% of employees reported an inability to regulate their attention at work. Research has shown that as the mind wanders, it gets trapped into patterns and negative thinking. During a time of extreme stress, such as now, the mind becomes even more hooked by obsessive thinking and feelings of fear and helplessness. In this state a chain reaction occurs. Fear begins to narrow your field of vision, and it becomes harder to see the bigger picture and the creative possibilities in front of you. As our perspective shrinks, so does our tendency to connect with others. Anxiety about getting the virus, worries that our loved ones will get it, worries about financial implications and all the other dark scenarios flooding the news and social media – is to a large extent of our own making. Mental resilience, especially in challenging times like now, means managing our minds in a way to face our fear head on. (Hougaard, R., Carter, J., Mohan, M. Build Your Resilience in the Face of a Crisis. March 19, 2020. Harvard Business Review).
The fear we understand because it has been a part of our lives for over a year now. But learning how to be resilient in the face of fear is a skill we are just incorporating into our lives. Understanding that no matter how devastating this horrible stress can be, we must believe that it will leave us stronger than we were before. But we must be intentional on how this will shape us. Resilience is a responsive agility that intentionally adapts to the compressive stress that we are experiencing to form us into something better, stronger, and more adept. We choose our actions. We cannot control the situation, but we can control our response to it and determine how the outcome affects us. We take some ownership over the crisis and create our own outcome. Personally, we can practice social distancing, good hygiene, and be calm for our benefit and the benefit of those around us.
These life lessons will always serve us. The knowledge we gather as we experience these difficult events will be available for recall for the next catastrophe. It can serve as our template for surviving the next crisis and allow us to be fearless.
Patricia Faust, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Patricia Faust is a gerontologist specializing in brain aging, brain health, brain function, and dementia. She has a Masters'sin Gerontological Studies degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Patricia is certified as a brain health coach and received a Neuroscience and Wellness certification through Dr. Sarah McKay and the Neuroscience Academy. My Boomer Brain, founded in 2015, is the vehicle that Patricia utilizes to teach, coach, and consult about brain aging, brain health, and brain function. Her newsletter, My Boomer Brain, has international readers from South Africa, Australia, Europe, and Canada. Patricia’s speaking experience spans the audiences' spectrum as she addresses corporate executives on brain function, regional financial professionals on client diminished capacity, and various senior venues concerning issues around brain aging and brain health.
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