Cultivating our wellbeing amidst our isolation
1.6 | April 26, 2020 | Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona
And now these three remain: faith, hope and love.
But the greatest of these is love.
1 Cor 13:13
IMAGE: Republica
Humans have over time evolved as complex social beings who seek to organise themselves through meaningful relationships. However, a global pandemic that pushes human beings to distance themselves from each other requires a new social imagination.
For many of us, social distancing has led to isolation and has had severe consequences on our mental wellbeing. These effects have been even worse for the physical and mental wellbeing of the poor and the marginalised.
In these times, how can our own solitude be the starting point of our wellbeing? What insights could faith provide us in cultivating friendships amidst our solitude? Moreover, how could our solitude renew our social bonds, especially with the disadvantaged in our societies?
FAITH
Hermits in community
Thérèse Wilkinson OCD | The Tablet | 3 April 2020
For Carmelites, solitude is, paradoxically, an invitation into relationship. St Teresa encouraged her Sisters to make Jesus their companion in solitude: “Since you are alone, strive to find a companion. Well, what better companion than the Master Himself…..Believe me, you should remain with so good a friend for as long as you can. If you grow accustomed to having him present at your side, and He sees that you do so with love and that you go about striving to please Him, you will not be able – as they say – to get away from Him; He will never fail you; He will help you in all your trials; you will find Him everywhere. Do you think it’s some small matter to have a friend like this at your side?” Friendship with Christ is at the heart of Carmelite life and also leads us into friendship with one another. Enclosed Carmelite communities are groups of very different women who would never normally choose to live together but who are united by their love for Jesus and their response to His call.
What about the times when solitude is a struggle - when this encounter with Jesus is experienced not as presence but as absence? In a Carmelite cell, that void cannot be filled with TV, radio or scrolling social media. It’s where we come face to face with ourselves; with our humanity, our fragility, our mortality.
HOPE
Mental Health and the Covid-19 Pandemic
Betty Pfefferbaum and Carol S North | The New England Journal of Medicine |
13 April 2020
Public health emergencies may affect the health, safety, and well-being of both individuals (causing, for example, insecurity, confusion, emotional isolation, and stigma) and communities (owing to economic loss, work and school closures, inadequate resources for medical response, and deficient distribution of necessities). These effects may translate into a range of emotional reactions (such as distress or psychiatric conditions), unhealthy behaviors (such as excessive substance use), and noncompliance with public health directives (such as home confinement and vaccination) in people who contract the disease and in the general population. Extensive research in disaster mental health has established that emotional distress is ubiquitous in affected populations — a finding certain to be echoed in populations affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Covid-19 pandemic has alarming implications for individual and collective health and emotional and social functioning. In addition to providing medical care, already stretched health care providers have an important role in monitoring psychosocial needs and delivering psychosocial support to their patients, health care providers, and the public — activities that should be integrated into general pandemic health care.
LOVE
‘Call Your Friends’: The Importance Of Maintaining Friendships
During The Pandemic
NPR's Ari Shapiro talks with science journalist Lydia Denworth about the biological effects of friendship — and why friends are so important to well-being, especially during the pandemic.
Ari Shapiro and Lydia Denworth | National Public Radio | 27 March 2020
DENWORTH: I think that this crisis has reminded us to not take friendship for granted. You know, you could say absence is making the heart grow fonder all over the world. And before this, what I found is that we think we appreciate friendship and most of us say that we prioritize it, but actually we cancel on friends all the time. And when we get busy, they're the first thing to go. And what I hope is that when this is all over, we will not go back to those old ways and that we will make friendship a priority. And this should give us permission to do that, to go hang out with our friends and, you know, fall into their arms with joy when it's safe to do that.
Postscript
Mental Health in a Pandemic
Historian Jeremi Suri sits down with Dr. Stephen M. Sonnenberg to discuss on how to deal with and maintain mental health in unprecedented times.
Dr. Stephen M. Sonnenberg | This is Democracy | 23 April 2020 | 40:42 min
“We need to try to create a culture that is self-reflective, and a culture that gives us time to be self-reflective… gives us time to contemplate… gives us time to learn to take in the lessons of the great observers of the human condition… and to become observers of our own condition and the condition of the people around us.
What I am really saying is we need to create in a very self-conscious way a culture that is contemplative.”
Wishing you faith, hope and love,
Rinald D’Souza SJ
HISTORIA DOMUS
For it is not so much knowledge that fills and satisfies the soul,
but the intimate understanding and relish of the truth.
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius of Loyola, #2
What is Faith, Hope and Love in the Time of Corona all about?
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Are you going through a struggle?
There is someone willing to listen to you. You are not alone.