DIGITAL MINDFULNESS – Catching the Wave

Getting Mindful With The Data

When we couple Mindfulness with an analysis of data that is not found in the on-air news channels, we find that we can put some rationality and facts to combat anxiety.  

Coronavirus has the whole world on edge.  We feel this in the US today with bare shelves in the grocery stores, school and event cancellations.  People are starting to feel the effects of separation and relative isolation.  All of this naturally creates anxiety. 

 Let’s talk about the data that we are seeing today and some methods to manage the anxiety.  We usually find that data by itself will have a calming effect because it contains facts.

This Coronavirus dashboard is updated throughout the data and maintained by Johns Hopkins University and looks like this.

The news we hear doesn’t typically give us all of the details.  They like to give a “sensational” perspective - mostly for the purpose of getting ratings.  Here is a dashboard that doesn’t have any commentary.  You can find this here. But the part we want to focus on today is the small graph in the corner.  It looks like this:

What we are seeing in this graph are the effects of social distancing - particularly in China where the number of cases have been leveling off and even decreasing - and also look at the green dots - this is the number of people who have RECOVERED!  Not trying to be overly positive and optimistic, this virus is horrible - but people do recover - a lot of them, in fact, more than 50% of the confirmed infections in the world have recovered from this illness and the number climbs every day.

People are recovering.  The concern does continue and will continue though China is approximately two months ahead of most of the world in its course of this virus.

So, if we were to extrapolate this graph and add in some additional factors of how the remainder of the world has responded with Social Distancing efforts, we may be as close as a month away from other locations line leveling off also.  This is encouraging.  It is not easy because we know more people will get sick. But we can start to ease our anxiety with data and knowledge. 

 There are many groups who are applying analysis and models to this data, as I am as well, though I am not including those projections and analytics in this blog.  It is my expectation in the next several weeks we will see plausible and realistic projections, which I expect to show the recoveries outpacing the new cases by greater margins every day. Now that’s a positive understanding of how data reduces anxiety.

 There are ways to calm the mind and manage anxiety.  We are big believers in the benefits of Meditation to help manage unease of the mind and body.  It is about Mindfulness.

Here are three tips that can help enhance the mind and manage the anxiety as we distance ourselves from our typical daily routines:

1. Spend time in nature.

2. Improve your knowledge with books or learning courses

3. Get caught up on the projects that need to be done around the house.

Staying home doesn’t mean that you need to be confined!

Spend time on Mindfulness – throughout your day when you can.  Keep your mind sharp and in control.  Doing so will help during this time of high anxiety and will give you an edge in preparedness when we turn the corner in this fight against the virus.

Daily mindfulness will help keep the massive flow of external information in proper perspective, too.  Got a few minutes: “Just Breathe”.