Sept 14th, 2020: Be Aware of Stress

 Can Stress, Loneliness and Sleep Deprivation Make You More Prone to COVID-19? | Discover Magazine

Everything is taking longer to do. For example, seeing our dentist, going food shopping, going to a coffee shop, buying a book, doing our banking at branch, and many more. The COVID-19 protocol has to be in place everywhere. We have learned to adapt ourselves to these new realities in some ways. However, that has impacted us more than we know.

As our regular routines change, we have to become more attentive to more information. We have to pay more attention to our ways of going about things and doing things. Many people feel tired mentally as they cope with these changes. It is more demanding mentally for some people. We begin to sense that our stress level increases.

Our driving habit has also changed. People seem to be in a hurry these days. Maybe we feel the pressure to get more done with less time. Speed and the lack of attention are what I have witnessed so far. We have less to do, and yet we feel as if we have less time to do everything somehow. It is intriguing to see how stress plays tricks with our minds.

Patience is also running thin. My wife and I were in a restaurant where we witnessed a very loud and unprofessional exchange between an employee and a client who picked her food up. Both of them were very loud, and we became uncomfortable even though we didn't understand their intense exchange. They seemed to determine that they were right as they increased  to their volume.

Many of us are tired. Many of us are preoccupied with our concerns about the future. Some of us have no other help if we get sick, and that is not comfortable. It is time for us to bind together as a community regardless of where we are so that none of us would feel alone in the journey of fighting against this pandemic. So reach out to one another one more time. We did that when the whole thing just started. Above all, let us be kind and be patient with one another.

Romans 12: 2
"Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

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