Buckwheat instead of panic

Rituals, amulets and a plan in case of the onset of last times

I'm afraid.

I want to return to the world without coronavirus - he was a good place, with his minuses, but, in any case, understandable. It cannot be that all this actually happened to us. When you look out the window, it seems that everyone is in their places, but the cracks are spreading like glass.

Yesterday I went to the store for milk and found out that all Czech schools were quarantined. For an indefinite period. I walked only for milk and after five minutes I realized that I was shocked in the basket of two more bags of buckwheat, spaghetti, some canned food from the tuna, all in a row.

And then I realized that I was afraid.

Every morning it turns out that while you slept, cracks fenced you off from some piece of the world. Italy on quarantine. America is closed. Israel is closed. Asia is about to slam. You may have not been going anywhere, but your conditionally shealing island still cringed, and you only managed to turn away.

And the body reacts faster than the head. It screams: “Hunger! Now we will all starve! From genuine leather boots you will have to cook nutrient broth! ” And runs after pasta.

Another toilet paper!

When you scare, there is no longer any “adult”, which “reasoned logically” inside you. To reason is a luxury that can be afforded in peaceful times. And in times of horror and anxiety, the psyche instantly goes into the regime of commandant hour: we recall that it helped all our ancestors survive in the plague and wars, and we act strictly according to the algorithm. No amateur performances. We stock up pasta, semolina and lard. We run and hide. We lock the doors and turn off the light.

The worst of all people with a rich fantasy, the psyche draws such scenarios that they lay their ears with horror (but many of them go to the scriptwriters, write scripts for horror films and are saved by this).

When we are afraid, we bring us all to where, “reasoning logically,” we would not have entered in any way.

In Germany, people in a row frantically bought toilet paper - why her? How does it help from coronavirus? What to do with her, to be wrapped? It’s just that she is a symbol of that very familiar and safe world that you want to return with all your soul. Soft and comfortable. And then the floor is swinging underfoot. Again. And cracks scatter in all directions, as on ice.

So let there be at least pasta.

We, as a biological species, were a lot of starving. We, in fact, stopped starving less than a hundred years ago. Even our great -grandmothers in the war exchanged boots for a loaf of bread and considered it an excellent deal. The brain will still not be very soon rebuilding, although now we live in the world of overproduction and replacement of food. Half of the world is fighting an epidemic of obesity, which takes away a thousand lives every year - much more than canvarus can take away. But the old firmware in our psyche resists this knowledge.

Although neither in China, who has already experienced the epidemic, nor in Italy, where the epidemic is in full swing, there was not a day of food. Shops work. Pasta in place. In deficiency - apparatuses of artificial ventilation of the lungs, but you will not stock up.

And more magic!

Ok, then maybe stock up on medicines? But what? Antibiotics against the virus are useless, you will not drink paracetamol without temperature. In European pharmacies, antiseptic gels for hands and sparkling vitamin S.

Anastasia Rubtsova photo: from personal archive

They are ineffective against the virus, but our psyche is needed, like amulets. Like a bunch of garlic on the belt of a plague doctor. Like an icon in a purse. After all, the amulet is also designed to somehow glue back a crumbling world, which becomes terrible in front of his eyes. Take death. When the panic subsides, we wake up in the morning, look at useless bottles in surprise and will not understand why they were needed.

They are needed to cope with anxiety.

If you take a straw from the psyche in the form of antibacterial gels, hissing vitamin and pasta and not offer anything in return, we will remain absolutely naked and defenseless before panic. It is better, on the contrary, to lay as many straws as possible. At the same time, the most harmless to themselves and others.

What helps us to cope with anxiety?

1. Rituals.

You can do something, no matter what, but on the schedule and regularly. Morning exercises and breathing gymnastics (by the way, it strengthens the lungs and immunity). Drink water - every 15 minutes several sips. Wash your hands every hour on the alarm clock. Wipe the desktop chlorhexidine in the morning and evening, also on the alarm clock. Read “Our Father” or Pushkin’s poems before going to bed. Any rituals soothe the psyche, switching it to the mode "I am doing something, I run away from danger." For the transition period, for one and a half to two months, they will save us.

2. Plans for the most terrible.

There is nothing worse than driving anxious thoughts with a tongue twister: “No, no, no, I will not think about it, otherwise this will happen, I won’t, then I will not happen.” Thoughts are not material (Dutch scientists who are large inventors specially conducted experiments). Our fantasies are not material. Something unpleasant happens not because we thought about it, rather, we begin to think about it when intuition tells us this scenario as possible. Anxiety asks us with a trembling voice: "What will we do if the last times come?" Instead of plugging this voice, you can play a little in an adult - to sit down, take a piece of paper and draw up a plan in case of the onset of last times. You will not believe how paradoxically this calms and frees your head.

3. Magic amulets.

They save well those who have an endless hellish kaleidoscope of anxious thoughts in their heads. As we have already found out, pasta, rice and stew are also a variety of magic amulets. And if it is impossible to get rid of hungry fantasies, you do not need to rape the psyche, but not now. You can just go and buy this stew, pleasing to manufacturers and yourself. But at least not a box - everyone will forget about coronavirus by the summer, everyone will get used to the new rate of the ruble, and the box will stand with a dumb reproach. Oberegs can be as much as they like, they can protect, if so, different areas of our fantasy world. For example, garlic, Arbidol, a magic ointment made of egg yolk and wax, from which at least flu, even rheumatism, even umbilical hernia passes - they create a magical shield in one place. And the little things that beloved people gave us - mother’s ring, grandmother's medallion, grandfather’s book, cover us with misfortunes in a completely different way. The amulets can be things reminiscent of a happy time when we felt the winners and the world smiled at us. Remember: to calm down to start thinking a little calmer and adequate, an important task. And here all the means are good, even an old sock with a muri-troll. Just do not believe in them by accident, as in a miraculous icon.

4. Dream.

Farm is incredibly important for the psyche self -regulation. In addition, the dream reliably strengthens the immunity, and only we can count on immunity. Sleep is more important than sport, and more important than vitamins. In addition, this is an absolutely free tool, and it will not disappear from pharmacies.

5. Aggressive - in a good way! - The development of the new .

The fact is that anxiety and aggression work in our psyche on the principle of replacement - the more one, the less space remains for the other. The brain knows this very well and tells us the easiest way to discharge is to break into others. To angry into irresponsible people who travel in a tram with a runny nose. Hard to home. I have to call for the Chinese. On idiots of doctors. Do not go along this path - it gives an instant dose of relief, but it leads us deeper and deeper into the gloomy world, where we are surrounded by enemies. Next time, to discharge, you will need to yell stronger, and after that we will feel even more lonely. Try to redirect aggression: listen to lectures, courses, perform simple tasks. Every day learn a new word from someone else's language. New dance movement. New term. Anything, if only it carried you away.

6. Knowing that this is the most that scares, will end.

The war should not last forever, in extreme mode it is impossible to live and breathe. Designate the conditional boundary of the end of the test in your head-for example, two to three months. Calculate forces for about this period. Plan relief in two or three months-how gradually the panic will let go, how the body is clenched into a lump, how easy it will become, a little empty, bitterly and joyfully. It doesn’t matter to us whether this will happen in real three months, it is important that the psyche does not get stuck in the feeling that “now it is forever.” Otherwise, it will be much more difficult for us.

7. Tablets.

This is the last line of defense, but you should not be afraid of it either. When do we need anti -lane tablets? When we completely, completely cannot cope. When we are covered by a wave of horror several times a day. We constantly break into loved ones, we pounding us, we will not recognize ourselves. We break into hysteria due to the fact that the child is not thoroughly washing his hands. We cannot get rid of the memories of the old woman who sneezed today in the subway. We cannot concentrate, thoughts rush about. Remember that the anxiety greatly exhausts the nervous system and undermines the immunity. And sometimes our holy law, and to loved ones-is just the obligation-to go to the doctor and ask for anti-aircraft drugs. For some reason, in Russia, doctors strive to register in such cases antidepressants to everyone in a row. Ask for anti -aircraft (they have fewer side effects, and they can only drink them, not a year, not a year). Demand, as they say, a top of beer after a detachment of foam.

And remember, when it all ends - oh, when it ends, we will laugh again.