Staying sane in a world falling apart

It is in the quiet moments when one finds a center. Finding a center gives one the focus to explore, to create, to remember, to stay put. In these uncertain, depressing times of the COVID-19 pandemic, the best choice is to stay sane.

Perhaps that’s what drives people up the wall. Staying sane opens a world of challenges rather than opportunities. But if one has the perseverance, the spirit of fortitude essential to stay sane, then one plunges into one of life’s most exciting and most beautiful journeys.

Staying sane means grappling with all the basics of a healthy life in all its aspects—physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. Sanity involves a holistic reality.

Physically, one is sane if one feels that he is fit to do and enjoy all that a human being is capable of doing. Being sane emotionally may present a bigger, more complex situation. But this is precisely the challenge. How does one stay sane emotionally? That means summoning the immense courage to be in control of one’s feelings, emotions, thoughts, etc. Staying sane means being in control of one’s fears, one’s anxieties.

Stay sane by surrounding yourself with what you like or approve—toy objects, irresistible food, Korean dramas or pop stars, enough sleep, and a comfortable bed, etc.

To stay sane, one has to stick to one’s grasp of the present and true (not perceived) reality. There are many options on how to stay sane—a walk in the park near one’s neighborhood, for instance, or a break from what one is doing or absorbed in at present. Taking a break could also mean pausing from complicated relationships in life or in business. Perhaps one should assess or reassess important relationships from time to time.

To stay sane is a matter of perspective. One may choose to look at a glass half-full or half-empty. But if one chooses to be optimistic or hopeful most of the time, then the task of staying sane in a world that’s falling apart is made easier. One has to be the solution, not the problem, to whatever life may bring. As a wise man proclaimed, “Life is not waiting for the storm to stop. Life is learning how to dance in the rain.”

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