hensblooms
I believe in God the creator of heaven and earth. I believe in love. I believe that affirmation can have positive impacts on our lives. I love the fact that to believe is to accept that something is true, especially without proof. To me personally, to believe is to live and to hope for a brighter future. I remember humming along or sometimes shouting out the words of songs that excites and injects hope and trust for our future.
The global pandemic has caused mass trauma and rapidly transformed every aspect of our lives. This also led to many of us showing anxiety and fear because of the negative impacts stirring through all facet of society. The symptoms of trauma can manifest itself differently in individuals and will most probably continue to emerge long after the pandemic is under control. Whilst we are all experiencing the trauma and stress at certain periods, our levels of stress and reaction to the trauma also varies. Some people are wired to be more anxious and others to be more laissez-faire. Several people might also have difficulty accepting or understanding the change that has taken place.
As with many on the road, while driving alone, many thoughts can be triggered as things happen around you. On this occasion I was on my way to pick up my daughter from school during this period of abnormality dictated by the pandemic. At a number of intersections there are always people begging, selling something or trying to get you to pay them for something you did not ask for like washing your windows. With all of this you sort of develop different strategies to avoid them like looking the other way, not coming to a complete stop or gesturing that you don’t have money etc. I guess we each have our own strategies.
Stigmatisation is the action of describing or regarding someone or something as worthy of disgrace or great disapproval. When we are judgemental we often form opinions, usually harsh and critical ones about people. Why do we stigmatise others so easily? Is it because of fear, the unknown and or not knowing how to care for one another? Do we stigmatise because we are judgmental or is it because we don’t know and make assumptions? Imagine having to deal with negative attitudes or discrimination when dealing with a mental illness, health condition, or disability. Then there are also social stigmas that’s related to other characteristics such as culture, gender, race, religion, and sexuality.
It is said that our health is our greatest asset. Without our health nothing else matters. During this time the focus on our health has been amplified. At times we hang the heavy weight of our health over our happiness. The pandemic brought about fear and our fear for our health could spiral out of control. I thought I’ll share the following story that was kindly shared with me.
hensblooms