FACTS OR FEAR? Are you doing Fact-Thinking or Fear-Thinking?

I saw a News Conference with the Democratic Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo this morning (March 19) in which he said we are in a war— actually we are engaged in two wars. One war is with the coronavirus epidemic and the other war is with fear. That’s when he said, “fear is more dangerous than the virus.”

To illustrate he then talked about a conversation he had with a well-known business man in New York City. The business man said that he heard that they were going to lock down New York City, put the city in quarantine, send out the National Guard, set up roadblocks, declare Marshal Law, and on and on. Governor Cuomo asked, “Who said that?” “Well, I heard it.” “They said it.” “It’s all over the internet.” The Governor then tried to reason with the man: “Listen I have not heard any of that, besides none of that will happen unless I authorize it, and I am not authorizing it. I will not.”

Andrew Cuomo then said the conversation went on for twenty-five minutes (!) as he tried to reason with this normally rational man out of his irrationality. “Fear is more dangerous because when people are caught up in irrational fear, they don’t think normally.”

That’s pretty good for a politician! I have to commend him for that News Conference. He spoke calmly and called for calm. He identified the problem that is above and beyond the physical problem of the virus— fear. Irrational, unreasonable, anxiety-producing, and panic causing fear. That’s a much harder battle to win and it is a “virus” that’s much more contagious than the physical virus— it is a mental virus that causes people to think irrationally.

We see it here in this small Colorado town on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains. People have gone to all of the grocery stores in the area and have hoarded just about everything— toilet paper, canned goods, water, eggs, etc. Shelves are empty everywhere. And right now we do not have a single case of coronavirus! Talk about irrational fear driving irrational panic-behavior!

For myself, I have refused to go to the store and hoard items. The least I can do is model calm thinking behavior. While everything is closed— I can’t go and read at Starbucks, not even at McDonalds, and I can’t go to the gym— they closed that. I can go for a run in the mountain trails; I can get out and work in the yard, I can meet with people that I’m doing business with and I am doing that.

To survive the covid-19 virus is easy. The information is clear and has been repeated a thousand

times— wash hands, give a meter’s distance around people, be cautious, etc. To survive the more dangerous pandemic— the irrational fear pandemic— that’s going to require a lot more of people. It’s going to require that people learn to truly think, to think critically, and to based their thinking on facts rather than emotions. Only then can one avoid going into a panic state of irrationality.

If you are new to NLP or to Neuro-Semantics— this is basic “State Management #101.” To manage your emotional state and truly exercise emotional intelligence, you first have to take charge of your brain— to “run your own brain.” You have to manage the thoughts that you think so that you refuse fear-oriented thinking and to base your thinking about facts.

Fear is more danger than the virus precisely because irrational fear makes you stupid. You can’t think clearly and rationally when driven by fear. As you experience the stress of fear, blood is withdrawn from brain and stomach, sent to the larger muscle groups— and you are in a state that makes clear thinking much harder (not impossible, but definitely harder). That also puts you in a state where you are much more likely to do additional physical harm to yourself —headaches, ulcers, and dozens of other psycho-somatic illnesses.

Depending on where you are and what your life conditions are, there are lots of ramifications from the “shutting down of the world.” For most people the disruption of everyday life itself will bring about lots of changes ... and imposed change such as this is felt by most people as highly stressful. Additional stresses that will occur for many are loss of income, loss of revenue from business, lack of things to do, cooped up with family for weeks, and on and on. Given all of the possible unpleasant ramifications— being able to effectively cope is at a premium. Yet one thing we know for sure— being fearful will not help.

So, what will help? Problem-solving thinking skills! For most people, this is a time for problem-solving. And if you know how to do that, the good news is that you now probably have time to do that. If not, then this is the time to learn how to solve problems. But first — be sure to manage your state. Watch your thoughts— and do not feed fear. Instead face fear with calmness, objectivity, courage, resilience, and other resources. For many, that will be a big task because they are naturally prone to fear and to feed their minds fear-thoughts.

There are answers to the Fear Pandemic. If you have been infected by the mental virus that causes you to think irrationally, to be filled with panic and anxiety, then the place to win that war is inside— in your head. Here are some recommend books: Consider Games for Mastering Fear (2001) on the Neuro-Semantic website. Consider Creative Solutions: Problem Solving (2017).