The other day, the Prime Minister of Norway announced that we would have to wash our hands every day until New Year's Eve 2021 in order to stop COVID-19 from spreading further. Imagine the amounts of money we can save from not buying soap after January 1, 2021. Just imagine.
Why have I posted a picture of a lavender field? Because lavender oil improves your sleep. Why a bumblebee? Because they aid in pollination and therefore also life. (Source)
In the 19th century, Ignaz Semmelweis noticed a link between the death of babies at childbirth and the fact that the health care professionals (professionals, mind you), who prior to aiding at childbirth, had worked with corpses - without washing their hands. Today, only reading that sentence makes you puke a little. If not, then it should.
Back when Semmelweis proposed actively washing ones hands, he was laughed at. This happens much too often with pioneers within many fields. There are even songs written about this. Like this one from Damian Marley and Nas called Patience
The Earth was flat, if you went too far, you would fall off
Now the Earth is round, if the shape change again, everybody would start laugh
If you don't stand out, you won't be noticed. Sure, there are many who like being lost in a crowd. They like being anonymous. There are also those who do it wishing, hoping they'd blend in, become one of the crowd. I used to be one of them, until one day I realised that I wanted to live my life for me, not for anyone else or by anyone else's standards.
When you're young (or I remember I at least used to do this a lot, and I regret it to this day and until the rest of my life), you make fun of people who dress differently, the girls and boys, women and men, who stand out.
OMG, would you just look at that emo? (It's funny because I'm all dressed in black now) OMG, what kind of a haircut is that? IS THAT PURPLE? AND PINK?!!
And also - not only young people do this. In my opinion, there's a similarity between children and ignorant people. Well, kind of. Children are ignorant - as in, they have yet to be taught this and that, learn this and that. Ignorant people, who unfortunately are to be found at all stages of life, are people who have chosen to be ignorant. They once had the option of using the world wide web, and the library of course, to educate themselves, but they chose not to. Ignorance is bliss, as the old, but gold philosophical saying goes.
Another one - Nikola Tesla. Did he have a good idea? Yes. Did he work with Thomas Edison in developing the lightbulb? Yes. Is Tesla mentioned in any books? Of course he is, but in not as many as I, and probably several others, would like. When the word Tesla is mentioned today, I doubt that Nikola is the word associated with it. No, instead it's Elon Musk and the cars that have doors opening up like spaceships. Cars so silent, they could take lives. Literally. They're silent death squads. I have, on the other hand, heard rumours about Tesla cars getting an app with different engine sounds. But still.
Another one - cryptocurrency. I remember the first time I heard about crypto. I laughed. I laughed so hard. And then I didn't - because this concerned someone close to me, and I didn't want that person to be losing money. Guess who's laughing now, after having payed off dept and travelled half the world? I'm not. But I'm so glad that it turned out the way it was supposed to.
Standing out is makes you strong. It could also make you one of the biggest fools there ever was, but it could make you strong. It takes guts to stand out, to wear whatever you like and feel comfortable in, to be able to walk down a street feeling the ignorant, and most likely jealous eyes, piercing back at you. It takes courage. Because what matters is how you see yourself, not what other people deflect onto you.
This post was initially going to be about how Semmelweis's clean, beautiful idea of washing one's hands could be applied to the current situation that we're in with all the enormous waves of overexaggerated fear being washed over continent after continent. Please don't get me wrong - this virus is deadly. People have caught the virus, both previously healthy and sick, and died from it.
But - people have also gone to have their tonsils removed, and died on the operating table. The regular flu is also deadly. Stepping outside your front door in several parts of the world is, not may be, but is deadly as well.
Bruce Lipton * is another one who got laughed at. I posted an interview with him from Brian Rose's channel on another social platform, and there it was, shortly after, one of the most used commentaire de critique of all time: 'He's been criticised a lot'.
- Does that mean that you let the opinions of others blend into a cocktail of your own opinions? Or worse, that you don't have your own opinion, but blindly follow others' opinion?
- Does that mean that you have read ALL that he has accomplished, and failed at, and have thus made up your mind?
- Does that mean that his failures don't outweigh his accomplishments?
I read somewhere that 'if you hate someone, don't drag others along with you'. Don't bring anyone else on that hate train. I know for a fact that if I asked everyone I've ever met about their opinion of me, the answers would differ so much, even I would find it difficult to believe them all. But, as another saying goes 'I delete old posts, because I'm not the same person I was 4-5 minutes ago'. Different periods in life. Different circumstances. Different states of mind.
One thing that really caught my attention during the interview with Lipton, was what he said about the immune system. He said something along the line of overwhelming fear causing the immune system to weaken, thus making it more susceptible to infectious diseases. When in a state of 'fight or flight', the human body is faced with having to make the decision of which problem to address. Survial wins, the immune system weakens. It sounds contradicting. It really does. Because they're linked. But not really.
When in fear, the body produces adrenaline. A lot of adrenaline. Maybe even a drop or two of pee comes out.
Then - the instinct of staying safe kicks in.
Then - the brain overloads on looking for ways to stay safe, and how to demolish the enemy - whether or not this enemy exists. The focus is mainly on the demolish part, not so much of the logical aspect of it all. Thus anger arises, and with it frustration.
(The same can be applied to anxiety.)
Instead of looking at the situation from a rational, logical point of view, and asking yourself these important questions (which have helped me tremendously):
'what is going on? what can I do about it, and if plan A doesn't work out, how about plan B and C and G?
the body and brain, while in fear, have a tendency to act like some people do on Black Friday. (I have seen pictures, I have read some articles. It looks like the definition of chaos.) No reasoning. No logic. No rational explaination for the behaviour that follows. Instead, there's too much energy focused on what doesn't matter. The body chooses to fight the illusion of fear - instead of reality. We get caught up overthinking this and that. We forget to take our vitamins. We forget to eat healthy. We just grab something, anything on the way. We forget to drink enough water. We drink several cups of coffee just sitting there looking out of the window imagining all the worst case scenarios in the world.
But what if the worst scenarios don't happen?
What if the world changes for the better?
What if the restrictions imposed due to COVID-19 make us better people?
Make us appreciate (more of) what we have?
Make us express (more) gratitude?
Make us friendlier neighbours?
Make us better parents?
Make us wash our hands more often, cough in our hankerchiefs more often instead of coughing like that water-thing on people's lawns that makes the water go up and down?
If only we had the power to turn our negatives into positives.
Oh wait - we do.
(*) For your information: I don't have any kind of degree in medicine. I do, however, have a lot of personal experience, and I've listened to other people's experiences, and I have read bits and pieces here and there.