Fear Spreads Faster Than Coronavirus

1. Focus on what strengthens you (not what scares you)

Our brains are twice as sensitive to what could go wrong (or be lost) than they are to what could go right (or be gained!) As such, dire images of pandemics (or other similarly cataclysmic events) have a way of capturing our imaginations that an ordinary flu just doesn’t. It is why people are more afraid of dying in a plane crash than a car crash when statistics prove air travel to be a safer mode of transport. (Americans have a 1 in 114 chance of dying in a car crash, according to the National Safety Council versus a 1 in 9,821 odds of dying in air or space crash.)

Fear has a way of hijacking rational thinking, driving us to terrorize ourselves with horror images that, in reality, are very unlikely, if not outright implausible. The more anxious the climate, the more deliberate you need to be to reset your attention toward the positive outcomes you want to create rather than fretting about all you don’t. After all, worrying is akin to praying hard for what you don’t want to happen.


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