Emotional strength in times of crisis
How to build confidence and help each other
Everyone has bad times — but what about when everyone is suddenly in the same boat and you can no longer handle the situation? We started this crisis with the awareness that it is not really a crisis, but one of many challenges that we have already confronted and overcome in almost 100 years of our company‘s history.
But emotions have challenged this objective certainty. COVID-19, short-time working and existential angst have set the tone for 2020. This releases extreme feelings — everything from powerlessness right up to anger. The values that we as a family business have always carried with us are now more important than ever. And there are ways to handle even this difficult time. So our question should not be when we will have overcome this low, but rather:
What can we do to gain mental strength during this time of crisis?
The current COVID-19 crisis is an exceptional situation to which people‘s emotional responses are very different. We have barely any rules of thumb that we can fall back on, there was no plan and the developments of the coming weeks and months seemed uncertain. Fear, anger and uncertainty are quite normal feelings accompanying people in such conditions. We have already experienced crises frequently in our long company history — and overcome them.
Five tips on how you can handle the crisis
Listen to each other and take each other seriously
What is special about the COVID-19 crisis is that we are all in this situation together. Nobody has to feel alone with their thoughts and feelings. But it is also important that we talk to others about these feelings. By communicating, we process emotions and create space for new thoughts.
Consciously appreciate the positive aspects
People assess the same situation completely differently, giving it different levels of meaning. In times of crisis, however, we are particularly inclined to see only the problems. We often lose sight of the positive aspects here. And this is important as an initial principle — when danger threatens, we cannot concentrate on other things. This applies, however, only to acute, short-term situations. If we are facing a long-term crisis, a conscious search for the positive can be beneficial. The key word here is thankfulness.
Find inner peace
Find the things that mentally relax you. These don‘t have to be the typical pastimes like yoga or taking a bubble bath. What is more important is that you find what works best for you personally. Your mind calms down with creative activities such as painting. Physical exertion gets rid of stress hormones. With podcasts and books, you can escape the real world and leave your problems behind you. No matter what you do, what is important is that you are fully engaged and concentrate only on that.
Ask for help — and offer it
We were taught to help others back in nursery school. Help is given real recognition and feels good. How-ever, it is harder to accept help. And this is due to the fact that many associate this with weakness. To motivate others to accept help, we can actively offer it and confirm that we too accept help.
One more thought on this — if we never accept help, then we also deny others the opportunity to give help.
Count on the community
Together. That has always been the way that we have overcome crises. In difficult situations, people come even closer together. As a family business, we in particular know how this works. We are there for each other, grow together and get through these difficult times. We don‘t yet know how long the COVID-19 crisis will last. What we do know, however, is that we will emerge from it stronger.
Martin-R. Bartz
Marketing, nass magnet GmbH
