{"id":21555,"date":"2020-04-07T17:26:43","date_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:26:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/?p=21555"},"modified":"2020-04-07T17:26:43","modified_gmt":"2020-04-07T13:26:43","slug":"experts-covid-19-changing-us-good-ways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/experts-covid-19-changing-us-good-ways\/","title":{"rendered":"Experts: Covid-19 is changing us, in good ways"},"content":{"rendered":"

Covid-19 has taken over our airwaves, our social media, our conversations and ultimately our lives. Most of the news we receive is bleak and the end of self-isolation seems like a far away land. But could the way we are responding to the Covid-19 threat have any positive impact on us as individuals, as societies and on humanity as a whole? These experts certainly think so\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019ve stopped taking things for granted<\/h2>\n

Who else is pining for a walk outside? Having lunch in a cafe or even just going to work?<\/p>\n

\u201cTimes like these, though worrying and overwhelming, provide clarity for a lot of people, in terms of their life and the way they have been living it,\u201d explains psychologist Fiona Barron. \u201cIt allows people to step back and reflect on what really matters, and lets them appreciate how much they miss the simplest of things, such as a hug from a friend, office chatter, going to the gym and wandering around the mall. The phrase: \u2018You don\u2019t know what you\u2019ve got till it\u2019s gone\u2019 has never been so true.\u201d Barron, the head of training and development at LEAP leadership courses, believes Covid-19 will change us for the better in the long-term, too.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople have time to pause and reflect, in order to form new habits that will stay\u00a0 long after we recover from this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The vulnerable have become our priority<\/h2>\n

We\u2019re so busy with our own lives that thinking of others isn\u2019t always a priority, but is Covid-19 changing that?<\/p>\n

\u201cChallenging times often provide an opportunity for social bonding and although we can not physically rally together, we are seeing wonderful acts of connection,\u201c says Barron. \u201cWhether it\u2019s shops changing their opening hours to cater to the elderly or neighbors volunteering to go out and collect essentials for those with underlying health conditions. There is a sense of camaraderie across the globe: societies are \u2018staying home\u2019 to protect the \u2018at risk\u2019 rather than themselves. We are seeing a shaming of those who are showing selfish, egocentric behavior as individualised societies shift away from a self-serving mindset towards social coherence and a \u2018greater good\u2019 mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n

Foreign governments are coming together<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe goal of containing and fighting Covid-19 has led to international cooperation and collaboration on various planes, most importantly politically and scientifically,\u201d says Dr Fabian Saarloos, clinical psychologist at the German Neuroscience Center in Dubai. \u201cThis includes countries helping each other in the provision of goods, such as Germany receiving face masks from Kenya, or medical summits in which knowledge and expertise and experience are shared, and most notably the movement of medical specialists as well as patients.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is something Dr Stephanie Alice Baker, senior lecturer in sociology at City, University of London has also noticed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in our generation that experts and politicians around the world have been united toward achieving a common goal,\u201d she says. \u201cI think one of the most striking changes is the cooperation of scientists and doctors around the world, because experts in these fields are typically quite competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n

We\u2019re looking beyond our differences<\/h2>\n

Is fighting a common threat making us look past race and religion to become a united force?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile disasters create fear and can activate our fight, freeze or flight mechanism, challenging times can equally activate a healthy sense of tribe,\u201d explains psychotherapist and author Andrea Anstiss. \u201cIt can activate remembrance of our innate humanity and our compassion, which is greater than our differences. We are being pushed to question our entrenched survival patterns of individualism, classism and racism. The Covid-19 challenge is about all of us cooperating.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Baker agrees: \u201cIt is as though people are connecting irrespective of their social identities. They\u2019re coming together as urban communities, as Italians, Londoners, New Yorkers rather than a specific religious or ethnic group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family connections have strengthened<\/h2>\n

Being forced into isolation has increased our desire to connect with others, especially family.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are reminded of what is truly important to us and we want to seek and share the comfort of connection, the joy and peace in caring for our loved ones, the security of belonging,\u201d explains Aamnah Husain, counseling psychologist at the German Neuroscience Center in Dubai. \u201cThe heightened emotional response to danger not only makes us become cognisant of our care and concern but also motivates us to express it and act on it. We are spurred to check in on family, ensure their comfort and safety, share information, assistance and hope.\u201d [\u2026]\n

The full and original article was published in livehealthy.ae<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Covid-19 has taken over our airwaves, our social media, our conversations and ultimately our lives. Most of the news we receive is bleak and the end of self-isolation seems like a far away land. But could the way we are responding to the Covid-19 threat have any positive impact on us as individuals, as societies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21556,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-media","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gncdubai.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}