This iconic war-time slogan emerged from the debris of an old building, when it was converted into an eatery. But in hindsight, we would have to agree that its message held out. Indeed, it made millions for its discoverers.
In stock markets, non-panickers do best in times of upheavel. But others panic for a 50c fuel price hike or Black Friday sales, only to come out worse on their pocket and their time.
In an immediate panic situation, a calm soul will let stampedes pass or take another path or do something different. And over the Covid-19 event, calmer souls will make better decisions. But their calmness is also hostile to viruses.
Indeed, a key to immunity is to de-stress. Stress causes sickness. Calmness renews the soul and builds resilience. My son is stressed over his honors workload. But that shuts down the frontal cortex, making things worse – as he admits. Stress never solves the cause for stress.
Some sensible things to do now are to restore community, eat well, stop sugar (it feeds bugs), take Vitamin C and Zinc. Also go for walks with loved ones, return meals to the communal table, switch off the bad news and talk.
During the blitz, a parrot survived in the debris, but it mimicked the whistle of a falling bomb. We too can laugh back and win. In another home, a family at breakfast stopped chatting as a flying bomb cut out, but resumed as it exploded. A witness said, ‘then I knew then there would always be an England’.
So keep calm. Its called a novel virus, but there is nothing novel about humanity surviving a global crisis. We will do it again.
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