As Long As We're Practicing Social Distancing

Let me make one thing clear right away. I agree that we need to practice social distancing. There are other things that we need to start distancing ourselves from now as well.

The reality is that just like anything in life, the best way to get to the other side is to focus on how you will be better because of it, not worse in spite of it.

I also want to say that I am trying to be a positive light in today’s world. I get what is going on in the world is scary. My goal is to not make anyone feel bad about what they have done or their beliefs. My goal is to share my beliefs in the hopes to help others.

How did I learn these things and how does it relate to what is going on in the world? I have put myself on some of the most challenging endeavors that have influenced my belief system from completing a full-distance triathlon to starting my own business. I tell you these things not to brag but to let you know where I am coming from and to let you know that I have been there. Oh and I also graduated in May of 2009 and learned from a voicemail that my internship was over.

As long as we are practicing social distancing, lets distance ourselves from…

Fear, there is no arguing that right now is a scary time for everyone. That being said if you can distance yourself from fear, you will be able to make better choices. Fear is a horrible master, it makes you doubt yourself and not live a life that you deserve. To be clear, not letting fear control your life does not mean you can be an idiot. Stay safe and keep others safe.

Judgment, listen I get the irony of me telling people to not judge other people. What I have noticed is that so many people are judging other people for their actions or lack of actions. I know when I am in this state, it is because I am full of fear. We cannot control other people and judging them does not help us in any way. I still struggle with this but reminding myself that I can only control my actions (which can have a huge impact) helps me a lot.

Hate, when you combine fear and judgment you get hate, at least that’s how it is for me. At this time there is a lot of hate that can be going around right now. We can hate the people that stock-piled the food, toilet paper, and hand sanitizer and we can hate the people not taking this seriously but none of that will help. It will only start to change if we start to care. We can still address the problem without hate.

Scarcity, It can be easy to believe that the world is running out of everything if you watch the news and constantly watch social media. Sadly watching this does more harm than good. It just makes us more nervous, anxious and afraid which plays into the feeling of scarcity. When this all started, I was running low on toilet paper, I had to go to three different stores over three days but I got it.

News, the news is obsessed with ratings and they want you to watch so they purposefully play on your fear to get you to watch. What I have found from the little news I do watch and read is that there is no real news to report. The majority “breaking news” they report is that there is no update and that nothing has happened or that “something” is about to happen. Do we really need the news on at 6:00, 7:00, 9:00 and 10:00? What good does it actually do us? Not to mention what if we spent less time talking about the problems and more time solving them.

Rumors, unless you know that something is actually true, please stop talking about it and acting like it is the truth. I have had numerous people tell me about the future of the state and what our politicians are “doing” and they were all wrong. The only thing it did was make me more nervous, scared and anxious about the future. I understand that you think you are helping but the last thing we need right now is more panic.

Politics, this is not the time to talk about which political party is right or wrong or to play into any childish games. We are people before we are whichever political party we sign up with. Let’s focus on helping one another and improving the world around us. Stop making politics at the forefront of the conversation and replace it with helping people no matter which party they belong to.