Corona Virus - Make your mind strong

 

Today the whole world is shocked and clueless about the 'Corona', how it was started, why there are no drugs or vaccines, and what will happen in future. Due to these thoughts, our mentality goes down and it leads to lowering of immunity and getting viral infections such as Corona. The aim of writing this letter is to make aware of this problem and to increase the positive thinking of people, leading to high mental state, in turn to increase the immunity to face this Corona challenge in a better way. 

According to the WHO - world health organization the 'Health' is defined as the complete physical mental, social, and spiritual well-being of a person. For better health, the mental state is very important. The thoughts and the attitudes are the first things that affect the mental state.  Our thoughts change feelings and feelings change behavior. Thoughts, feelings, and behavior are in a triangle interconnected to each other. To change the behavior of someone first we have to change the thoughts and attitudes of that person. Psychologically we change someone's thoughts by a process called cognitive reconstructuring to change the feelings and then the behavior. In this Corona crisis also we must have positive attitudes, otherwise, we feel sad and fear leading to negative behavioral change. 

First of all, we have to understand the reality of this crisis and face it. We cannot run away from it. Some countries have successfully controlled it including Sri Lanka. There may be an invention of new drugs and vaccines in the future. This is not the final fate of our lives. 

In this crisis reminds us to rethink how we lived so far in a very fast forward competitive world not caring for others and also the environment. We all were in a race economically, socially, and technologically to reach the unreachable targets. We were not aware of others and also ourselves. The 'nature' taught us a lesson at this time. So the whole world got stuck, locked down, and stopped for a while. We must think of the positive outcomes of this locked down. Nature started to bloom again, the dusty air disappeared, flowers and trees got refreshed and started to bloom and animals started to move freely. 

During this period we all had to be in our homes. Although we had to keep a distance from one another physically, we got close to one another mentally and socially. The 'Family' concept built again the Family Bond Strengthened with love, fellowship, caring, appreciating, and helping each other family members and they got together at the dining table for meals and prayed as a family. This helped to build good interpersonal relationships among family members. Not only that people started to cultivate in their home gardens and spent time with nature as they got enough time. This is a good motivation for our economy in the future. 

As people got more free time they used the time effectively. Some started to do exercises, trying new recipes, recreational activities, reading books, composing songs, and using social media in a positive way. 

The new inventions done by students is a very good positive sign. As they got relaxed free minds they could use it for these new inventions. Some made ventilators, monitors, and a lot of other equipment relevant to this time. The school children released from their big syllabus, tuition classes and got more time for playing, relaxing, and enjoying their leisure activities. Though they could not meet their friends they could chat with them through social media they formed whatsapp groups, zoom discussion and some of them started online learning. This was time-saving and interesting. Parents also started to work from home and learned to use technology and it was a new experience for them. 

As all the outings were limited and all unnecessary expenses were cut off and people were able to save their money. Fast foods, dinner out, takeaways, instant foods from outside were stopped. It leads to the lowering of health problems seeking medical care. As transport was limited, accidents reduced dramatically. No liquor was available to men. It contributed to fewer accidents as well. People would not go to medical centers, private channeling, hospitals but they somehow survived without drugs, investigations, and surgeries. One has to rethink whether these medical interventions done before were truly necessary. 

The parties, social gatherings, weddings, funerals were done in a very simple way. A lot of money was spared and unnecessary wastage was also minimized.  All the beauty parlors and salons were closed. Ladies somehow managed to live without artificial beauty and with their natural beauty. 

Social media played a great role in this crisis. A lot of people communicated through this to uplift the people’s mind by posting positive things.  Health information and esteem building posts were also circulated. 

We all had a very relaxed and joyful time to live a healthy life physically, mentally, socially and spiritually. Our attitudes were changed. We trained to help others, especially neighbors sharing our things with them and to minimize unnecessary expenses and to spend money on most needed and to stop wastage.  

Compared to the other countries in the world we can be proud of our country's situation about how we faced it, managed it, and overcame it. We could come to the best county in managing Corona in Asia.

Now we are ready to restart our normal routine again and we should restart our country with refreshed minds and bodies. We must step into the country with positive attitudes and should work hard dedicatedly to our services, helping each other to make Sri Lanka as the best example of  the world. 

 

Dr. Heshani Karunathilake

Medical Officer in charge of Yowun Piyasa, Mithuru Piyasa counseling center Colombo south teaching hospital, Kalubowila, Sri Lanka.