Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world

Someone said "We become addicted to the noise of things falling apart". I don't know about you but I've spent way more time then usual on twitter/watching the news recently - we can get addicted to the news cycle - particularly the negative aspects. Its important to get the right information but we can become obsessed with researching all these things.
We should keep in mind the difference between our circle of influence Vs the circle of concern.. The circle of concern is much wider - The news, the Corona Virus, the response to it, all those things fall into it - and we do need to spend some time there but the more time we spend thinking about the things in that circle the smaller our circle of influence gets - conversely the more time we spend thinking about the things in our circle of influence, which are the things we can directly effect, the bigger this circle gets. You don't need me to tell you that for the sake of our mental health we should spend as much time as possible in the circle of influence with our thoughts. Ask yourself, where are you spending all your time? If you are spending most of your time watching the news or reading twitter - ask yourself how much of it is instructive or helpful?

"Keep this thought at the ready - there is only one path to happiness, and that is in giving up all outside of your sphere of choice , regarding nothing else as your possession, surrendering all else to God or Fortune" - Epictetus.

Today you won't control the external events that happen - but you can control your opinion about those events - you decide if they are good or bad , whether they are fair or unfair, you don't control the situation but you do control what you think about it.
Many of us are getting the chance to spend more time with our loved ones and the people we truly care for. This is an opportunity for connection, we can nurture it, spend time together - not on our phones or watching the news, a chance to actually slow down a bit even.
I intend to keep my news watching down to 5-10 minutes of the top headlines - this is enough to keep up to date with the most current advise without spending time worrying about what's happening in France, USA, etc, etc - because those things are outside my circle of influence that's for sure!!! Again, get what you need that is helpful and instructive and leave the rest.
We are in this for the long haul, we have a duty to keep ourselves informed, but lets not become paralysed and overcome with fear. The best thing we can do is support each other in these difficult times, if you have a neighbor, check on them, call your family, call your friends, keep talking and we can get through this together. Love to you all x

 

good post. I was thinking along similar lines. Notice how the press/media/tv only give out the gloom and doom side of the story... how many have been infected, how many have died, tragic of course. But it kust whips up hysteria. They do not tell of how many have recovered or the percentage of infection and deaths on a world wide scale.... its about 1%. Recently the USA stated they were beginning vaccine tests on hunan volunteers, and there is a rumour that Doctors in India are making some headway too. They highlight the panic buying but do not tell of how much food we have in reserve. Its about time they balanced it up a little.

 

I hope the stories coming out from India and in particular Australia are true and they've prematurely cancelled events through shear panic.

 

I'm minded at this time of the wise words of Franklin Delano Roosevelt 'we have nothing to fear but fear itself' and that got them through WWII, so canny like

 

what have you heard from Australia.

 

That they've found a way to treat the illness.

 

If it is true it's a commonly used HIV drug.

 

whats the supplies of that like , and is it easily produced.

 

I'd only be speculating but there are plenty of people throughout the world being treated for HIV.

 

To be fair they are focusing on positive stories about people helping others out in 5his crisis., on Calendar the one show and evening news.

 

The deaths to recovery rate is 9% based on these figures https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/, and experts have generally said it's about 3.5% so you're significantly downplaying it. The main problem isn't fear, it's actually the opposite. Anyone that is over-confident about this disease will pick it up and spread it to the most vulnerable.

 

UK 17/3/2020*: Cases: 1950, Dead: 55: Recovered: 52

*Death rate has not been updated since yesterday.

 

The thing is though. Even if everything you’re saying is true, those people still need to be treated for HIV - as well as all the new patients.

All these drug breakthroughs are not cures, they are ways to treat and manage the disease. It’s good, if it works, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not a solution. It’s not a permanent fix.

 

To be fair, we’ve not had enough time yet for many cases to be ‘resolved’ except for the cases that result in death

 

You are correct. It takes a couple of weeks (or negative tests) for a case to be resolved. So that figure will increase rapidly as time passes, but both the number of positive tests and deaths in the UK have increased by 25% since yesterday.

 

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

 

Of course. And therefore the death rate is much lower than 2%. In South Korea where testing was intensive - it works out at 0.7%. If 25 million people in the UK get it that is 175,000 people. Around 500,000 people die on average, so that is not an insignificant figure, but it's not necessarily added to the 500,000 - as people who die of coronavirus may well have died of other causes.