Never waste a good crisis

One metre apart in the shop, colleagues working from home, politicians more united than they’ve been in months. With the kids at home, it inspires creative ways to look for solutions and make agreements.

Connecting Communication, right now

“Never waste a good crisis,” we hear. Maybe this is the moment to learn how to communicate in a connecting way and make our contact with ourselves, with others, and with the world more heartfelt. Because the upheavals of recent weeks have stirred up strong feelings in many of us. Thoughts run away with us. Before we know it, we are no longer able to stay connected with each other, or with ourselves. Yet it remains important to keep supporting one another. Creativity is crucial here. And taking good care of yourself works best when you also consider the needs of others.

Feelings of fear Usually, fear is the life-protecting impulse our body produces when we face a visible risk, like a car heading straight for us or someone raising their arm and shouting next to us. But fear also arises when we imagine what invisible risks might cause. Think of the impact of a virus, or of measures that keep you indoors. When fear originates from thinking, the possibility of a quick reality check disappears. We risk becoming disconnected from what we initially feel and drifting into doom scenarios and wild fantasies, which does nothing for our wellbeing. It should be clear that many of our fears today are triggered by risks we do not fully understand. For that, we rely on what the experts say about the corona epidemic. How to deal with this in practice, day after day, is something each of us has to figure out. That is neither easy nor obvious. Politicians and scientists make decisions at the macro level. We ourselves need to translate those into our own lives. Besides everything we have no influence over, we can choose to deal with reality in our own, unique, human way. We can consciously decide to do things that make our lives and those of others more beautiful and meaningful. Connecting Communication offers us a foothold, a way to have influence over how we deal with difficult circumstances. It gives us tools to act and communicate meaningfully, guided by what we feel and think. We wish everyone the calm and the trust to make conscious choices in the weeks ahead. To let the things that cannot be changed simply be. And to make choices where we do have influence. Through dialogue and consultation, a great deal is possible. We wish everyone strength, support, and love.