COVID 19: making the world a place of collaboration
Recently I had the pleasure to interview Jonathan Midwood. We spoke about the curent Covid 19 crisis but also his work concerning mindfulness tools.
Jonathan is the Founder of Head to Heart Network. He is the perfect example of a sustainable shaper and builder of better futures. Head To Heart Network’s philosophy is simple: H2HN’s main aim is to create personal growth through the practice of mindful, present awareness and to help everyone develop positive self-insight. H2HN plans to collaborate with inspired and progressive thought leaders to aid ‘seekers’ in their own journey to find happiness. He is also the ambassador of Global Sustainable Leaders network (An Unparalleled Network For Global Sustainable Leadership).
“Fear lays at the root of many of Man’s biggest failures, but it also drives the human race to push through to some of their greatest successes. Covid-19 offers one such opportunity. We are at an inflection point and if it is taken then it can help transform fear into a something that delivers us positive change.
In recent history we have seen the re-emergence of ‘social movements’, marches and coordinated gatherings like Extinction Rebellion. This type of social initiative seems to be galvanising not just the students of left-wing colleges who come together to protest against anything like the fate of the lesser newt. NO, what we are seeing and what is happening is something akin to the late 60’s social movement marches that were rife in the United States. Groups of people, from all walks of life, coming together to raise attention of causes that deeply mean something to them.
These marches were designed to not only bring attention to the government but society as a whole and were created to introduce the idea that there needs to be change and a shift in the mind-set of humanity. The problem in a lot of situations is that what is being presented doesn’t resonate enough with those who are asked to listen and the ones that are listening don’t have the desire to hear. Fear, as an emotion is relevant to both sides of any discussion, but it is often taken in different ways.
Fear is more than just a thing that we get from time to time, it is something that we always present with us and it is one thing that certainly has the power to create a response in us. We are designed as human beings to respond to fear in a; physical, emotional and behavioural way; in extreme cases it can be all three. However, in rare cases a 4th option is also there for us to choose, the intellectual response.
Whenever you are caught in fear you will respond physically, that is a given. The Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) kicks in and the physically response to a fear stimulus is set lose. A stimulus is made up of real or perceived stimuli and in the case of Covid -19 it is actually both. Let’s use an example to demonstrate.
You are ‘triggered’ with fear when you are sat on a bus and someone starts coughing; you experience a heightened sense of fear and that will trigger your heart rate to elevate. That is your ANS kicking in. After that you may actually decide to move to another seat, get off at the next stop or cover your nose and mouth, that is your behavioural response at play and this is often learned behaviour or instinctive. Your next response may be anger, upset and irritation that is your emotional response kicking in. However, it is at this stage you have a choice. You can either get wrapped up in the whole plethora of emotions that spiral you away from a degree of control OR you can pause and reflect in a logical and intellectual way about what is happening.
In the case of COVID-19 and the reactions we are currently seeing we are in the ‘triggered’ stage and we are seeing the whole gamut of human responses in action. Fear is breeding anger, frustration, doubt, hatred and in a lot of cases self-serving behaviour. It is sad to see, but it is inevitable. Fear has us in its grip at the moment and we need to work through this stage in order to be able to see what is actually being presented to us.
As I said at the top we are at an inflection point and we need to see through this, through fear and work out the next question. What next?
This virus will go, it will inevitably do a lot of damage and it will leave an immeasurable level of destruction behind it. There is no getting away from that. However, it also offers us all a chance to make changes that could, if we ALL take a new direction, lead us to a new way of being and a new way of acting that will be for the betterment of the world and the people that inhabit it.
This virus is a trigger, fear is our reaction but what is our intellectual response? What we need to do is take this horrendous situation and turn what is bad into a movement for change and one that will deliver lasting good. We are rarely presented opportunities like this in our lifetime, now is our time. Let’s kick this virus and let’s kick out fear. Let’s galvanise humanity into a collaborative and unified collective that embraces diversity and difference and one that is committed to making the world a place where collaboration is the new currency of nations and a healthy happy human is seen as a measure of a nation’s success.”
By Laura Petrache -VISIONARY ENTREPRENEUR//GLOBAL SUSTAINABLE LEADER//CHANGE MAKER/16+ years of initiating and delivering sustained results and effective change
