WALK IN THE WOODS CAN EASE STRESS

impossible to focus. Your brain and body are literally doing jumping jacks.

Given the near-constant news coverage and social media chatter around infection rates, death tolls, travel restrictions, stock market swings, and ominous predictions on how dire the pandemic may get, it’s understandable.

Even without the coronavirus, the news can leave us in constant flux. And yet afraid we might miss something, we succumb to the noise all day every day or we go to the other extreme and avoid it altogether.

Like the president is prone to do, we blame the news media, but we really shouldn’t. Each of us, McCormack said, is responsible for what we consume and even how we react to it.

“You can’t blame that on somebody else,” he said. “People need to practice self-discipline. Just because the news cycle is 24 hours doesn’t mean I need to listen for 24 hours.”

So how can we neutralize the noise around the coronavirus?

McCormack offers five tips:

• Understand how the over-consumption of bad news affects you. When something becomes the only thing, it becomes everything, says McCormack. You start believing the world is coming to an end. And when all your waking hours are spent anxious, nervous, and anticipating the worst, you not only start to miss all the other stuff in your life, you pass fear on to others.

• Don’t confuse predictions with certainty. You’ve probably heard the adage that FEAR stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. That’s important to remember at times like these, notes McCormack. People tend to make dire predictions with such certainty that you start to believe them, but really, they simply do not know. Remember all the past cases of flu and viruses that were supposed to decimate humanity — but didn’t.

• Temper your consumption. Thanks to the 24/7 news cycle, you’re likely to see the same story reported 17 times and said 17 slightly different ways. It’s not healthy to dedicate all your bandwidth to one fear-producing story. But if you’re tempted to blame the media, don’t. It’s their job. It’s up to you to turn off the TV, shut down the computer, and walk away.

• Focus on the facts, not wild speculations or possible domino effects. Find one good source you trust and stay abreast of the situation. Pay attention to what you can control: regular hand-washing, reasonably stocking up on bottled water and other supplies, postponing flights to coronavirus “hot spots,” and so forth. If you can’t impact it, don’t focus on it.

• When others are talking, change the subject. Don’t pile on. Be the voice of calm and reason. If they won’t drop the subject, have a few reassuring talking points in reserve to help put things in perspective and defuse fear. The CDC website (cdc.gov) is a good source for this.

At the end of the day, each of us has to believe that life is precious and lower the volume so that we can really discover what’s important in our lives.

“We have to manage noise or it will manage us,” McCormack said.

CONTRIBUTED Joe McCormack teaches military units and corporations how to be clear communicators, to think in an age where a lot of things are competing for our attention.