Can you catch the coronavirus by reading this blog?

No, but a view from your window might make you happy! Currently my world feels consumed by the coronavirus. Everywhere one turns, there is a story about coronavirus. Good and bad, fake news and informative, frightening and reassuring. One of the saddest Covid19 stories I heard last week was of the US televangelist, Kenneth Copeland. He is a rather controversial preacher (some say sleazy), who has made millions of dollars through asking his ‘congregation’ for donations. These donations have enabled him to own a couple of jet aeroplanes, a $6 million lakeside mansion (complete with its own runway) and reportedly live a lavish lifestyle. Last week, for a donation, he was promising to heal folk struck down with coronavirus though the TV. Many thousands of gullible Americans took him up on his offer. Now that is taking ‘social distancing’ to a new level!

For bloggers everywhere, finding inspiration as to what to write about other than coronavirus has become increasingly difficult. All my ‘normal’ sources of ideas are devoid of anything other than stories of Covid19. Of course, there are many other things I could write about. For example, last week I signed off a contract for my new car. It’s a very fine car, but totally impractical. As my father has often said to me over the years, that means you can’t get more than two shopping bags in it, let alone a bale of hay. It was one of those ‘one life, live it’ purchases. Now I’m not even sure I will be able to pick it up. On reflection, it now feels rather a redundant thing to be doing – buying a new car, when there are so many people impacted and dying from the Covid19 pandemic. It feels largely irrelevant, and somewhat selfish.

Of course, there are many other things to reflect upon. Close to home, our wedding had to be postponed. At first, I was ok about the decision, well at least not as cheesed off as I thought I might have been. As last week came and went, it’s actually left me feeling very sad. Depressed even. I shouldn’t be really. When I stopped to think about it, I realised that young J and I have spent the past year having great fun planning our wedding. Whilst we both like many of the same things and ideas, we also have very different tastes in some areas. We found common ground in music, love, nature, and freedom and that inspired us to take a totally authentic approach to our wedding.

Inspired, we themed our wedding preparations around the Woodstock festival. Back in 1969, I was just 14 years old. My parents, rightly so, wouldn’t let me attend the festival. J was just three months old. She had grown to love the music and identify with the ‘Summer of Love’ much later in her life. And so it was we came to call our wedding ‘Wedstock’, issued wedding invitations in the form of music concert tickets, found an unconventional and very creative chef to prepare the wedding breakfast and scoured the world looking for items to use in the celebrations. We did have so much fun doing so.

Yes, it is very disappointing not to be able to get married in April. But postponing it was the right thing to do. Even if we had been foolish enough to carry on, Friday’s new restrictions on social distancing and social isolation would have made it impossible. It’s a little difficult to imagine when we should try to rearrange things for. There are so many unknowns. What we do know however, is that our day will come and that helps keep us feeling very happy. In these strange days, finding happiness is important.

The World Happiness Index 2020, published last Friday, provides a timely reminder of what else we can do to keep us happy. It’s a difficult read in parts, but worth having a look. The happiest country in the world to live is Finland. Its capital, Helsinki, is the happiest city in the world to live. The UK is the 13th happiest country in the world, although we have moved up five places since 2012, when the first Happiness Index was published. The research data draws upon ‘moments of happiness’ recorded by large numbers of participants in over 160 countries capturing some 99% of the total world population.

There were some interesting things to be found in the report. The outcomes published in Chapter Five of the report were outlined in some newspapers last week. I found it the most interesting chapter of the report and well worth a read. In some ways it doesn’t tell us anything many of us don’t already know. For example, being outside and enjoying nature is good for us. The health benefits of natural environments have been extensively researched in epidemiological and psychological literature. Socialising with friends, relatives and the person most special to you are among the strongest determinates of happiness. We know that in health care, happy staff make for happy patients. But even a short-term exposure to a green natural environment is all that is required to trigger a salutogenic effect. Way back in 1984, Roger Ulrich famously noted that patients allocated a hospital bed with a view of a natural setting rather than say roof tops or a brick wall had much better post-surgical recovery experiences, needed less pain medication and received fewer negative comments in nurses’ notes. For those readers working in health care, here is a slightly later paper you might find interesting to read.  

Of course, being outside can also indirectly result in a positive health and wellbeing impact for most people. Being outside often leads to certain behaviours, such as taking physical exercise and engaging in social interaction (think about the phenomenal rise in those regularly taking part in park runs every week). Many outside spaces are free from other stressors such as noise and air pollution – I know walking on the vast expanse of our beach, even when it’s just me and Dylan (the dog) it is one of the most relaxing, invigorating and uplifting things I can do every day. The other is gardening.

Anyone who wants to (at least, temporarily) put the anxieties of the coronavirus behind them, can do no better thing than getting out there and planting some seeds, mowing the lawn or just simply sitting and enjoying the sound of the birds singing. If you haven’t got a garden, you can still take a walk in some of our wonderful parks and other open spaces, and for a moment, open your eyes, ears and mind to the beauty of all that Mother Nature has to offer us. If you are doing the latter, stay safe, but keep smiling.