​For those of us who respect science, the new Netflix set of documentaries, Corona Virus: Explained, has some excellent information. There are three episodes: first, about the corona virus and how it works; second, about the development of a vaccine (very hopeful!); and third, how we can deal with any stress or anxiety we’re experiencing. I wrote earlier about those who are in “psychological denial.” These folks prefer to think Covid-19 isn’t even happening. This current blog is for those of us who recognize that the virus isn’t going away anytime soon. We want to respond creatively to that awareness. All three episodes in the Netflix series are very informative and interesting, but the third episode on handling stress really caught my attention.
 
The first suggestion to handle covid-19 stress is to breathe. Slowly breathe in on a count of five, and then slowly breathe out on a count of five. No, this isn’t some hippie-dippie New Age thing. It’s science-based. Slowing our breathing reduces the out-of-control effects of our sympathetic nervous system. This part of the human nervous system creates stress in our bodies in response to a threat, commonly referred to as fight or flight. Breathing slowly allows the other crucial part of the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system, to come to the fore, slow down our heart rate and to help us to chill out.

​The next suggestion is on reducing stress:  limit your news to once a day. Constant input detailing news of the pandemic just leads to more stress. And don’t drink a lot of alcohol. Alcohol sales have gone way up since the pandemic began. But alcohol just numbs us for a while. It does not reduce stress. Same goes for drugs.
 
The third suggestion to reduce stress is to “reclaim agency” in our lives.  How do we do this?

• Keep a schedule. I go out first thing in the morning for a walk around the neighborhood. My schedule allows for both exercise and an experience of the natural world.
• Take care of something:  a cat, a dog, a plant or a garden, or a bird feeder. In my case, my son’s dog comes for a visit episodically, I have a small garden to care for (mainly tomatoes), and I feed the birds (which also unintentionally provides a lot of entertainment for my neighbor’s cat).
• Make something: There’s a lot of room here for focusing on a project that interests you. Some people are taking up long-delayed DIY projects such as putting up that bookshelf in the living room, or trying out (or creating) new recipes, or doing something in the arts:  I’m all for the arts, and music is an especially good thing to be doing now. Take up an instrument, write a song, or even better, sing along with others. Some friends and family are having Zoom or Google Meet sessions and singing together. There’s a reason why Italians went out on their balconies or into the streets, played their instruments, and sang to each other at the height of their pandemic quarantine. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBByYjjvNzs   As the Italian poet Alda Merini said, “La musica fa respirare.” Music lets you breathe. 
• Connect with others and help others: There’s always a way to connect with others. Zoom or Google Meet encounters are just one way. We have email, phone calls, and texting. There’s plenty of ways to help out, too, even when stuck at home. Do you like to sew? You can make masks. If you’ve survived covid-19, a gift of your blood plasma to treat others is extremely helpful.
• Shift focus away from yourself. This will make for positive change later. What have we learned in this pandemic about what is NOT working in American society. What do we need to work on?  How about access to nutritious food for all, especially kids? Access to affordable health care? Dealing once and for all with racism?
• Shift focus away from yourself. Reading is a great way to shift focus away from yourself. Sci-fi, mystery, suspense, romance – read whatever takes you into a new world.
• Shifting focus away from yourself also means moving energy away from the monkey mind that fills our thoughts with worry and fear. Let go of yesterday. Let go of tomorrow. Live in this moment. Breathe.

​One of the speakers in the Italian video said, “I think the most efficient weapons we have are music and culture. So let’s fill up our days with beauty, beating the virus to the beat of music, and soon we’ll be able to hug everyone again.”

So with that in mind, my current production of malas, mandalas, and Spirit Joss artworks fit into the category of “make something”   There are also other ways to assist in the shift of focus away from stress and worry to a more contemplative life. Use the mala to repeat some comforting words bead-by-bead while breathing in and out – a prayer, a mantra, or an affirmation. Use the mandala to remember the sacred unity of life. Use the Spirit Joss words to remind yourself of key concepts: peace, love, courage, hope. While you are quarantined, you can experience the richness of the world: tomato plants, singing birds, a happy dog, incoming monsoon clouds, the sound of music or the voice of a socially-distanced neighbor calling out from across the street, “How are you?”
 
Explained: CoronaVirus trailer
https://www.netflix.com/title/81273378
27, 23, and 20 minutes long
 
My malas, mandalas, and Spirit Joss, and other artworks can be found on my Etsy site: BajaArizona Treasures. I add new things frequently.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/BajaArizonaTreasures
 
Feel free to comment. What are you doing to cope creatively with the current state of affairs?

First, I’ll admit I’m lucky. Staying at home and avoiding social situations are not problems for me at all. “Self-quarantine” just gives me a chance to focus on art and writing. However, it has become abundantly clear that many of us are coping with the COVID-19 pandemic in very different, and often dysfunctional, ways depending on our personal psychology. Too bad not everyone is an artist, writer, musician or other creative type. There would be less suffering.
 
Much has been written recently about the mental health crisis in the U.S. precipitated by this pandemic. People are experiencing depression, stress and anxiety. Rather than write about options for dealing with this (and there are options), I’m writing now about a particular form of dysfunctional response to this virus. That is psychological denial.
 
The American Psychological Association defines “psychological denial” as “a defense mechanism in which unpleasant thoughts, feelings, wishes, or events are ignored or excluded from conscious awareness. It may take such forms as refusal to acknowledge the reality of a terminal illness, a financial problem, an addiction, or a partner’s infidelity. Denial is an unconscious process that functions to resolve emotional conflict or reduce anxiety.”
 
Psychological denial is a personal problem gone public when people who are in a state of denial engage in behaviors that affect the welfare of others.
 
Here’s an example. For about twenty years, I’ve had a postal box at Coronado Station in Tucson (on Rosemont north of Broadway). If I have to buy stamps or mail a package, I go to one of the windows and see a postal clerk. At my post office, there are signs and markers on the floor for postal customers to stay six feet away from each other. There’s one long desk divided into different “windows” so the entire room is actually open air.  Currently, every “window” at this long desk has a plexiglass barrier between the clerk and the customer. Some of the postal clerks behind the plexiglass are wearing masks, too.
 
There is one exception. At one of the windows, the clerk is not behind a plexi barrier, and he is not wearing a mask. If you go to his window, you will be approximately three feet away from him. So while I was waiting (at the window next to his), I asked him why he didn’t have a plexi barrier or why he wasn’t wearing a mask. He said, “I don’t have to have a barrier, and I didn’t request one. I’ve been around people with the flu, and I never got it. And I’m not going to let this virus get me down.”
 
1) The plexi barrier: I looked at the U.S. Postal Office website which says, “To reduce health risks for our employees and customers and to safeguard our operational and business continuity, the Postal Service is doing the following:” There’s a long list of actions including “Reinforcing workplace behaviors to ensure that contact among our employees and with our customers reflects the best guidance regarding healthy interactions, social distancing, and risk minimization. We have implemented measures at retail facilities and mail processing facilities to ensure appropriate social distancing, including through signage, floor tape, and “cough/sneeze” barriers.” (my boldface)
 
It’s not clear to me why this postal clerk thinks he gets to choose or reject the plexi barrier. Nor is it clear why the Post Master isn’t enforcing this. As I said, go to his window, and you’ll be about three feet away from him – no social distancing.
 
2) “Never catching the regular flu.” COVID-19 is not “the regular flu.” It is a very, very infectious disease with no cure and no vaccine. And this postal clerk doesn’t seem to realize that he could be one of the infected who shows no symptoms, but who is easily capable of infecting others. A part of his faulty thinking is simply ignorance about how the natural world works, how viruses work and how our immune systems work. I’m personally not willing to take a chance that I’m one who can be infected but who doesn’t get sick or who doesn’t get very sick. I could die.
 
3) “And I’m not going to let this virus get me down.”  This is a classic example of psychological denial. This postal clerk just doesn’t want to deal with the reality of the virus. Standing behind a protective barrier or wearing a mask will force him to accept what is really going on. He is clearly not concerned about how his behavior affects his postal customers. But this isn’t a bar on a Saturday night. This is the U.S. Post Office.

Here’s a good article to read, “The Psychological Reason Why Some People Aren’t Following COVID-19 Quarantine Orders.”
 
Individuals can be in psychological denial if they want to be in psychological denial. But do they have the right to endanger other people with their behavior? I don’t think so. Also I want to note that the virus doesn’t have a brain. It does not know or care if you are a Republican or a Democrat. It isn’t concerned about your “Constitutional right” to do whatever you want.
 
So what should we do about this?  It looks to me like I’m going to be self-quarantined until there is an effective and reliable vaccine for COVID-19.  I don’t go out often, usually only to the grocery store and post office. And when I go, I wear a mask and gloves, and I disinfect everything when I come home. There are too many people out there in psychological denial these days. As far as the postal clerk is concerned, I never go to his window.
 
I’ll wait for the vaccine, and I hope this postal clerk who is in psychological denial doesn’t infect anyone with COVID-19.

Today is Veterans Day, an American federal holiday set aside to honor those persons who have served in the U.S. Armed Forces. Other countries have their own similar holidays. For example, today is Remembrance Day in Canada.
 
In my lifetime, I’ve seen American soldiers sent off to several wars, beginning with the Vietnam War and continuing up to the current Afghanistan conflict. My own experience with veterans began with my father who served in World War II and the Korean War. I’ve known several Vietnam veterans, one of whom suffers to this day with the effects, both physical and psychological, from his service in the jungles of Vietnam. I frequently meet and talk with veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. Veterans are my neighbors, my fellow dog-walkers, and my fellow writers and artists.
 
Not much has changed over time. The wars go on, and the suffering continues. Too many soldiers are killed. Others come home with debilitating physical injuries. Psychological injuries are a big part of the damage of war as well. Early on, the psychological injuries were called “shell shock,” then later came to be known as “combat fatigue.” Now we use the terms PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), and “combat stress injuries.”  The U.S. Army calls it “Combat Stress Reaction.”
 
My own relationship to war, in addition to knowing war survivors, has been to be a protestor and resistor of war. In my own small way, I’m one of those people who attempts to bring about those changes that will lead to peace, not war.
 
My latest Letty Valdez Mystery, Daemon Waters, is dedicated to our veterans. Daemon Waters is my attempt to encourage readers to think about the effects of warfare on soldiers. Most importantly, my hope is that we will all see the need to provide our warriors with the support and assistance they require to deal with the effects of war. That means good health care, both physical and mental, and job opportunities when they leave the Armed Forces.
 
So today, I say to our veterans, thank you for your service to our country. May you come home from war safe and sound in mind and body. May we all work to create those conditions that lead to peace.
 
“It isn’t enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn’t enough to believe in it. One must work at it.” --Eleanor Roosevelt
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