In these times it is as important as ever to protect your mind; engage in healthy mental habits, and create space. Don’t give in to fear + stress and be very aware of what you are mentally digesting.
There are many outlets that would use these difficult times to push their favourite political agenda, or attempt to make more money through clickbait, fear-mongering, and confusion. Even worse are the unvetted opinions shared by many on social media and these rumours get propagated during times like these. Many of these types of hysterics will turn out to be false. Only after the crisis is over, and experts have ALL of the data, will we know what was important and what was simply noise.
If you try to keep up with all of this constantly changing information via the news, you will quickly be overcome, feel overwhelmed and/or fall behind. To stave this off, make sure that you are getting your information from reliable news sources that you are familiar with. If you are reading a public health announcement, make sure it is for Canada and not another country like the U.S.A., Italy or the UK.
My practice during these times is to only read articles that are:
- presented by governing bodies.
- are not anecdotal.
- state the health professionals by name and the name of the hospital/institution.
- don’t include political attacks or commentary.
- focus on solutions, not assigning blame.
Here are a few reliable news sources:
Canadian Government has information here –
https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/coronavirus- disease-covid-19.html
Ontario Government has Information here –
https://www.ontario.ca/page/2019-novel-coronavirus
Canadian Government Travel Health Notices –
https://travel.gc.ca/travelling/health-safety/travel-health-notices/
Toronto Public Health –
https://www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/
For an injection of fun, positivity and hope, check out my favourite commentator, Scott Adams (the creator of the Dilbert cartoon.) Twice a day he goes live with up-to-date news. He breaks-down statistical info in novel ways, attempts to expose our biases and puts the networks on check for their bad practices. He endeavours to focus listeners on medical, scientific and economic mental models while helping to remove the emotional reactions we are all prone to having. I find it helpful (and entertaining), maybe you will too! SCOTT ADAMS PODCAST
Stay sane, stay ready and start planning for when this is over!