Four-“C”-able Future: Cultivating Wellbeing During a Global Health Crisis

  • August 25, 2020
  • Wendy Lund, BScN, MSc in Mindfulness Studies

Four-“C”-able Future: Cultivating Wellbeing During a Global Health Crisis

Life before COVID-19 was challenging. The statistics on mental wellbeing before March 2020 indicated many of us were suffering. Now, early data suggest the interventions necessary to keep us safe (physical distancing, remote work, etc.) have put that wellbeing even more at risk.

At the beginning of the pandemic, you may have found yourself grounded in moments of significant anxiety, maybe even panic. You were in a state of high reactivity. For instance, fear drove the panic buying of toilet paper. However, six months later, you have likely settled into some level of acceptance about today and the foreseeable future.

Despite its many challenges, I would argue COVID-19 has been amazing teacher of mindfulness. This threat has demanded our attention to detail in every aspect of our life. In a matter of weeks, our brains have adjusted to new words, protocols, and socially expected behaviours and norms. It has made us all more aware of how viruses operate and how to mitigate risk. While it has not been easy, it has also shone a light on just how connected we are to each other’s wellbeing—and how there are things about others, our systems, our leaders and ourselves we may not like.

Reflect on how much our lives have changed. It’s almost weird to watch TV and see a show where people are close to one another. All of a sudden it feels abnormal. THAT is neuroplasticity in action. THAT is how effective and efficient our psychology is at changing how we receive and perceive our world. THAT is the potential power of a mindfulness practice.

Despite how incredibly stressful this pandemic has been, it’s been a powerful example of how transformative mindfulness can be, especially on training and sustaining our mental wellbeing.

Cultivating wellbeing during a crisis is not just possible, it’s imperative! We cannot sustain a stress response for 18+ months without significant cost to our wellbeing. What follows is an invitation to reflect on the four C’s this pandemic is highlighting: contrast, collective, courage and calm.

Contrast

By definition, contrast implies a state of being strikingly different from something else. COVID-19 has swiftly and decisively created a hard line of “before” and “after.” This contrast has perhaps challenged our mental wellbeing the most. Our suffering may come from focusing on the contrast and wanting life to return to normal. What existed before COVID that served our mental wellbeing (social supports, travel, connecting with others at work, getting a break from the kids) is gone. Pandemics, like all threats, cause us to live in the contrast.

Practicing mindfulness motivates us to pay attention to where our attention is in the first place. While COVID-19 may be the birthplace of challenging emotional states, it can also be the birthplace of tremendous personal growth, insight and wisdom. Mindful awareness can help us see contrast as an opportunity for growth. It is because of this contrast that we can appreciate what’s great about life right now.

It’s also important to move through this pandemic knowing that growing pains are as real for the mind as they are for the bones—and just because they can be challenging doesn’t mean they are bad. In fact, neuroscience is beginning to show that neuroplastic changes in our brains require a little tension in our learning in order for them to stick.

Collective

If there is one silver lining in this global threat, it is that we are all impacted by it. COVID-19 is not just happening to you and your career. It’s happening to everyone.

Our stress response often promotes feelings of loneliness and isolation. Mindfulness theory teaches the importance of common humanity. Common humanity is a critical ingredient for compassion and self-compassion, as it reminds us that we are not alone and that collectively we all suffer. Compassion and self-compassion are powerful, evidence-based facilitators of mental wellbeing.

We can boost wellbeing in this pandemic by noticing when we are feeling the weight of what’s happening in our individual worlds, and cultivating compassion for ourselves to soothe the nervous system and for others to soothe the collective suffering. We may not all be in the same boat, but, without doubt, we are all in the same storm.

Courage

All too often courage is associated with facing adversity without fear. But that’s a photoshopped version of what it’s actually all about. Courage is acknowledging our fear and moving forward with it when it would be easier to just avoid what’s hard or scary.

Courage is not fearlessness. It’s about being present to the fear and stepping forward into it and trusting we’ll figure it out. Courage is using fear to motivate—not stop—us.

Calm

There is a pervasive misperception that people practice mindfulness to be happy. While joy and life satisfaction scores are improved through mindfulness practices, the actual goal is to establish a sense of equanimity. This is the capacity to establish a sense of peace in our minds—especially when everything around us is hard or fraught with difficulty.

And if you think of calm as passively surrendering to difficulty, think again. Anyone who has done mindfulness mediation or insight training will attest to the fact that establishing calm is quite paradoxically an active and intentional process. It also takes a lot of time to habituate those interventions to the point that they become the default processes in our brains, instead of our instinct to be on the lookout for danger and respond accordingly.

When we call on our courage in times of difficulty, bring compassionate awareness to the contrast in our lives and world, we’ve moved the collective knowing of our evolutionary processes forward in a way that builds not only a better today but also a more stable, grounded and calm future.

Wendy Lund is CEO/Founder of Wellth Management (wellthmanagement.ca), a firm that works collaboratively with organizations to help foster psychological safety and wellbeing in the workplace. With more than three decades of experience, Wendy understands the biology of stress and resiliency. Her vision is to help others redefine wealth in their workplace and lives, which she shares through workshops and in print.