0
Items : 0
Subtotal : 0,00
View CartCheck Out

Reconciling happiness and coronavirus?

Happiness and Coronavirus? What?

I know, Reconciling happiness and coronavirus? is a rather provocative title but the coronavirus is all people talk about right now and I am determined to talk about happiness! It reminds me of the 2015 Paris attacks, that’s when I wrote one of my first blog articles. Something had just happened that we hadn’t experienced here, it was scary and it seemed to threaten our life. Do you see the parallel?

Is there a danger?

We know about killer epidemics, it’s just that we’re used to them striking elsewhere or hitting other people…. And now we’re facing a pandemic of a thing that we’d like to think is just like a flu except not quite. It’s a lot more contagious and a lot more deadly, relative to the number of cases. There are alarmists and people who minimize it. As usual, I am trying my best to face things as they are, without giving into fear. And I think this coronavirus is scary.

It is indeed threatening… In our neck of the woods, we are a bit used to being able to control things… We have vaccines, medicine and in France at least a health system that, while it is suffering a bit at the moment, is quite effective. Unless we are really sick, we don’t really have any reason to feel threatened.

And now we see our Italian neighbors being overwhelmend with the virus, doctors crying for having to choose whether to treat a 40 year-old or a 60 year-old. That is more of a war-time problem! And if I believe my doctor, this virus is about to explode right here. So what do we do? At the moment we precisely don’t really know what to do.

And what about happiness?

Well, precisely, what about happiness? For the last few years, I have been offering services to help you cultivate your happiness, no matter what! Of course, we need to be clear on what we call happiness. When I say happiness, I am certainly not talking about explosive joy, a world without worry or concern, nor am I talking about the absence of the so-called negative emotions. No. I am talking of the happiness that comes from living in harmony with ourself and with our environment. As Camus would say:

But what is happiness except the simple harmony between a man and the life he leads ?

Albert Camus

Happiness no matter what is exactly what is at stake; if everything is fine, it’s pretty easy! So now, how is this situation touching us, how is it making it hard for us to be happy?

Facing our vulnerability, our mortality

This coronavirus, a little like the Paris attacks in 2015, forces us to confront our vulnerability, our mortality, the uncertainty inherent in life, the finiteness of so many things.

Pretty scary, I know! For me too. It makes us consider things we don’t really want to consider, I suppose that you don’t need me to spell it out more! But it can also pave the way to carefully examining what is important for us, the relationships that are important for us. I invite you to consider the following questions:

  • To what extent are you living life in agreement with your values?
  • What might you like to modify?
  • Is there something you regret saying, that you have never admitted?
  • What are you not saying, that you might regret never saying?
  • Is there something in your life that seems incomplete?

I could go on. But this threat, this confrontation to our mortality, to that of your loved ones, let’s make sure it motivates us to clean up our life, to adjust things so that we are more in alignement with our values, with our life principles.

So let’s try to reconcile happiness and coronavirus, what do you say?

If you find it difficult, I can totally understand, I am not immune to worry, even if I very ambitiously claim that I am capable of revealing your happiness. If you find it too difficult, I can offer you therapeutic support. Given the circumstances, I prefer to offer video-appointments, until the threat moves away.

You can contact me here.

I wish you lots of courage because we can all use some.

Sonia Weyers
Revealing your happiness
Fouder of EUDOKIMA