A common misconception is that the Chinese word for crisis is the same as the Chinese word for opportunity.
Having a quick troll through Wikipedia shows that that’s an over exaggeration of the truth which was populated by JFK during campaign speeches for the presidency in the early 1960’s, but what seems to be true is that the Chinese word for crisis also contains a symbol for change in circumstance or new direction.
18 months ago, I was sat in the centre of Wuhan with new friends that I had made and was wide eyed at the culture shock I was in the middle of and the new experiences I was feeling.
I have such fond memories of how wonderful people were to me, that it was really sad to see the pandemic start here and spread the way it did, and then my heart was lifted as I watched a video on the BBC of experiences of people who are coming out of the lock down, as Wuhan opens back up.
There were tips on how to survive and advice from the citizens of Wuhan to people around the world. I was particularly touched by a couple who’d been thrown together in their apartment, unable to leave, who spoke about how to be patient with each other and kind to each other, as everyone’s flaws were laid bare in close confinement.
I can relate to that quite easily with my own house, and what it feels like.
The Chinese are right though, there is a change of direction during and after a crisis, there is an opportunity to take the things that have been smashed to pieces and to rebuild them in a different way, there is no question that my life will not be the same at the other side of this and I mean that in a good way.
The other word from the Chinese, which I learned years ago is the word for health which is a combination of two symbols and translates as heart and mind.
I was introduced to this by David Servan-Schreiber, who explained that the Chinese philosophy of healthy mind, healthy body had then be proven in western medicine to show that good mental health correlates with good cardiac health but the fascinating thing is that it works in the opposite direction. Strong cardiac health positively influences your mental health and strong mental health then positively influences your cardiac health.
I’ve written about this in these pages several times before, but it was probably never more pertinent now.
It’s important to get your heart rate up in positive ways every day through this crisis, because that will improve your thoughts and proving your thoughts gives you the chance and the motivation to improve your cardiac health and so the cycle continues.
Whether or not COVID-19 came out of china is irrelevant to me, there are many better things that came out of china than that.
Blog Post Number - 2334