Space Between: A STBYM Update Episode

described it. Sometimes we presented a slightly sci fi vision of where we might be. Uh. For my own part, I am currently hunkered up in my closet, surrounded by my clothes and my wife's clothes. I've got uh there's a nice shelf of board games across from me. I have a monstrous compendium over there as well, full of A D and D monsters that I can see. And uh, next to me for today's episode, I have a mascot.

I have my VHS copy of Jerry McGuire, which which one day I hope to hand off to the Everything Is Terrible crowd and let them take it to the desert and build the pyramid. Uh. So it's a symbol of hope. You know that that one day this video will be a part of the pyramid, and one day we'll have moved through and past our current circumstances and Jerry will ascend to become part of the all Jerry. How about you, Joe? Where are you located at the moment? So I'm in my laundry room. Uh Rachel helped me

set it up. We've got towels and blankets draped everywhere. I'm here in my sweatpants and my Electric Wizard T shirt. I also inspired by you. I have a little talisman uh to to help us through so in this time of need for gods and idols, I have my action figure of Tom Atkins from Night of the Creeps. He's got he's got a little uh he's got a shotgun, and he's got his trench code, and he's got a

bottle of course light. And then I also have with me a tiny replica I was telling you about this earlier of a tiny replica that we got at the National Museum of Iceland. That is a replica of a little idol or or trinkett found to leave from like the tenth century in Iceland. Uh. And it's a seated figure with a with a conical hat holding a cross shaped object in front of it, and they don't know if this idol is supposed to be Jesus or Thor

and I like that ambiguity. And I really love the the inclusion of the tom Atkins figure because tom Atkins and tom Atkins character specifically a Knight of the the Creeps. It's a it's kind of like top shelf roused ower,

you know, like the budget roused It's exactly it. Uh So I just want to say real quick, our audio quality is obviously going to be down from what it usually is, but also we are waiting on some gear to be delivered to our houses, so during this time of social distancing, we can record hopefully something that sounds a little bit better than we sound today. So if if the quality is not to your liking, please do stick with us for upcoming episodes in in in the

coming weeks because hopefully it will be better next time. Yeah. The the technology is going to drastically improve over the next few days. And also I think we're going to get more used to recording remotely like this. Uh. Ultimately, you the listeners, some of your favorite shows, even in our network employ remote production like this and you might not have even noticed it before. Um So I think we'll get accustomed to it. We'll pick up some new

tips and tricks to make it work. And either way, this is the this is the only path forward at this point because we're uh, we're again, we're practicing social distancing. We are not going back into the physical studio together for the foreseeable future. Now, we know this is a tough time, it's a challenging time. Our jobs provide us with the privilege of continuing to do this from our homes, and we really we don't take that for granted. We

know not everybody has that privilege. But we're gonna keep recording the podcast because it fulfills us and we hope that it can continue to be of use to you as well as we all work through this together. Absolutely, we we hope we can be there for you throughout all this, and we appreciate you sticking with us as well. This episode is going to be a little different from what you probably have come to think of as a usual stuff to blow your mind episode. We don't have

a concrete topic for this one. This is about catching you guys. Up. It's about, you know, honestly serving as a band aid episode while we get all of our gear in so that we can keep pumping out the sort of episodes you've grown accustomed to over the years. Now, one thing that we did want to talk about today is is the issue of social distancing itself. I'm sure this point you're not wondering what that is. You've probably

heard about it, you've probably been told you should do it. Uh, But I think it's not clear to me that everybody's taking social distancing seriously yet we've even this was last week, so hopefully these opinions have changed. But last week we even heard from a few people directly who think that the recommendations that people should stay home if at all possible is a symptom of hysteria or overreaction. I want

to be very clear that it is not right. Yeah, over the weekend, I know, I personally, my family we were already practicing social distancing. But then we I was in the car, I drove past a popular brunch place near where I live, and it was it was packed. It was frighteningly packed. Um Now, I don't know of in some cases, maybe maybe in some cases, people were certainly not taking it seriously. Maybe in other places people thought that they would show up and basically have a

mostly empty restaurant at their hands. But if the latter is the case, then a lot of people made the same error and judgment. Uh, either way, it was I think it was pretty clear to a lot of people over the weekend that not enough people were taking it seriously. And I just hope that an increasing number of people

are realizing that the importance of social distancing. Yeah, there are several reasons why it's important for anybody who is able to practice social distancing, meaning you stay at home as much as possible, limit your interactions with other people, limit trips out, especially to crowded places, to only what is absolutely necessary, and that would be things like like

healthcare visits, uh, grocery and pharmacy basically. Now, there are several reasons right now why it's really important that everybody who is able limit their interactions with with other people as much as possible. Of course, it limits your exposure to a virus that is now just uh just you know, bouncing around within communities that were no longer talking about it just be something that is a product of travel. Of course, it's it's throughout cities in the United States

and many other countries too. Uh. Now, you you might think, okay, but I I I'm not all that worried about how this virus would affect me. I'm young and healthy. I don't really care. I've had a bad flu before. This was the nature of some of the messages we were seeing, you know, from young people, like posting on our channels. And there are several reasons why I want to drive home that this way of thinking is really misguided right now.

First of all, even for young and healthy people, this is a much more dangerous infection than a regular flu. Like people in their twenties and thirties are experiencing severe cases, requiring hospitalization, and sometimes they are dying from this. It's just that they are requiring hospitalization and dying at a much lower rate than older people, say, in their sixties and seventies and eighties. I remember what it was like

to be a teenager. I remember feeling invincible. You know, even even if you are more likely to come through this infection without a severe you know, like without a need for hospitalization or without dying, like, you are not invincible. But more than that that, the much more important point is if you're young and healthy, you still want to limit your exposure to the virus so that you don't get infected and then spread it to others who are

at much greater risk than yourself. Uh. And so you might think, well, okay, that's reasonable, But well, if if I start to get sick, then I'll just stay home. Then I won't spread it. You know, I start coughing, I have a fever, that's when it's time to stay home. It would be great if that was the case, but unfortunately it looks like it's not that easy. So at first some authorities were suggesting that you would only be contagious if you were showing symptoms. Actually know people who

were under this misimpression. Rachel and I were talking about some friends of ours who had been mistaken and saying this the other day. Um, this does not appear to be the case anymore. There is now pretty good evidence that people with mild symptoms or no symptoms, who don't realize they have the coronavirus at all, can spread it

to other people. And we don't know exactly how prevalent that kind of spread is, but the earlier announcements that it was only significantly spread through major symptomatic cases really appear to be wrong. Yeah, one celebrity example of this, because now we're in the phase, we're definitely hearing a lot of stories about various notable individuals, famous individuals that are showing up positive for coronavirus. Idris elba as an example of this, big driss uh stringer from the wire.

And of course he's been in so much more now, great actor, one of my favorites. Yeah, he's he's he's tremendous. And apparently what occurred is he found out that he had been in contact with somebody who tested positive for

COVID nineteen. So adam an abundance of caution, he himself was tested and found and it was found that he was positive for COVID nineteen despite not displaying any symptoms and feeling otherwise, you know, perfectly healthy, which you know you look at it yoursel but and you just just said, he must just feel perfectly healthy all the time. That's

that's probably not gonna change. If anybody's invincible. He is, Yeah, but just because you feel invincible doesn't mean you cannot be positive for COVID nineteen and certainly capable of spreading it to people who are not as physically robust as yourself. And so he did the right thing and self quarantined. That's exactly right. So one example here that there was a new study published in the journal Science on March sixteenth, I think that was two days ago. Now we're recording

on Wednesday, March eighteen. And this study was called Substantial Undocumented Infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus or SARS c o V two UH. And for quick terminology thing, COVID nineteen is the name of the disease you get. The pathogen is being referred to as SARS c o

V two UH. The study was by Rheen Young, Lee Sen, pey Bin, Chen, y Ming Song, Tao Jiang Wan Yang, and Jeffrey Shaman, and the team used data from the outbreak within China to try to understand how the virus spreads throughout populations and the role of contagion from undocumented cases people spreading it without even knowing they had it. Their study estimated that prior to when when transportation lockdown went into effect throughout the regions, in China prior to

that period. On January eight, six percent of all infections within China were undocumented. They write, quote per person, the transmission rate of undocumented infections was fifty five percent of documented infections, yet due to their greater numbers, undocumented infections were the infection source for seventy nine percent of documented cases.

These findings explained the rapid geographic spread of stars c o v two and indicate containment of this virus will be particularly challenging, so to make sense of those numbers really quick. It looks like the people who didn't realize they had COVID nineteen were only about half as infectious

as the people who did realize they had it. But because there were so many more people who had it without realizing it than people who realized they had it, the people who didn't realize they had it were responsible for about eighty percent of the spread, and speaking to The New York Times on March sixteenth, one of the authors here, Jeffrey Shaman, speculated on on the basis of this research that given our lagging testing capacities here in

the United States right now, the number of real infections could be greater than the number of documented infections by a factor of about ten. So uh So, to quote Shaman quote, if we have thirty five hundred confirmed cases in the US, you might be looking at thirty five thousand in reality. Uh and a lot of these people

would have no idea they're sick. I was reading a news article from March sixteenth on CNN which quoted several public health experts who believe there is a major threat from a symptomatic, pre symptomatic or only mildly symptomatic transmission.

According to Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, quote, we now know that asymptomatic transmission likely plays an important role in spreading the virus and uh and he says that asymptomatic transmission quote surely can fuel a pandemic like this in a way that's going to make it very difficult to control, and that that sentiment was also echoed by somebody we quoted, I think in our previous episode

about COVID nineteen, William Shaffner, who's a professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Schaffner says quote asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic transmission or a major factor in transmission. For COVID nineteen, they're going to be the drivers have spread in the community.

Uh So, this is why it's really important. Like it looks at this point again, you know, we could get a bit of better picture in the future, but it looks at this point like it's totally possible to be young, healthy, to be only mildly symptomatic or maybe not symptomatic at all. Have no idea. You have this virus and then go out and do your daily business and spread it to people all along the way. So even if you're healthy.

That's why, out of out of caution, it is very important for everybody who is able to stay home and self isolate right now or at not totally isolate, but you know, practice social distancing another way to think of it, even if you're not worried for yourself, staying home is a public service. It is an act of charity at this time. You know, for the next few weeks at least, you could save a life by doing it. Absolutely. I mean, as we ask ourselves these questions, do I really need

to go out for this right now? Do I really need to go to is store? Do I really need to make this purchase? Um, These sorts of questions, you know, are the things we need to be asking ourselves. And I mean, you can really think of this as as a lot of little sacrifices that we're all individually making, uh, to to again cut down on this transmission, and to enable us to flatten that curve. Yeah, that's right, and

and to revisit that technology. You've probably heard a lot more about flattening the curve since we talked about it in our original COVID nineteen episode, but just to refresh really quick, flattening the curve refers to making sure that the infection rate doesn't rise so steeply that it overwhelms our capacity to care for people who are infected, and that makes a huge difference in the overall case fatality

rate of the disease. We are much better at keeping people who have severe infections alive if the hospital system is not overwhelmed while they get infected, and so spreading more people out over time we think will lead to many fewer deaths than everybody suddenly getting it all in

the next few weeks. Basically, this is I mean this is an encouraging UH concept for us to all get behind, because it means that as a society, through this you know, collective agreeance on the importance of social distancing, we have the power to influence the rate of this thing as it moves through our population and therefore keep the surge in cases below the threshold of what our our hospitals,

on our our our medical institutions are capable of dealing with. Yeah. Um, And now a lot of people have been asking how long how long is this need gonna go on? And unfortunately, at this point we just don't know for sure. There are some pretty grave estimates out there about how long people would need to practice social distancing in order to get us through, say to UH to an effective anti viral treatment or vaccine, or you know, for for immunity

to build up in the communities. I would say, don't get overly fixated on the most dire possible scenarios right now. Just focus, okay, you know, one thing at a time. In the short term, it is definitely going to help either way for more people to stay home for the next few weeks, because that at least allows testing capacity and stuff like that, and UH, and research to catch up to the virus instead of just allowing its exponential

spread to continue during that whole time. So during this time, it's it's very important to make sure that you're getting your information about COVID nineteen from from trusted sources, UH, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the CDC, the World Health Organization and UH and also you know the mainstream media sources that you can trust. Yeah. But the other half of it is, um, okay, So let's say you're already on board. You've you've bought in, You've bought

in on the idea of social distancing. You understand how important it is if you are at all able, we're staying home. The next part is like dealing with that situation. Obviously, this is going to present different challenges for different people. Some challenges, UH might be you know, financial and have to do with how you make a living, and those are real issues. I mean, I'm hoping some kind of public assistance comes along very soon to ease that burden.

But on on top of that, uh, social distancing is socially challenging, right, yeah, I mean we're social animals, We're not We're not made up for this kind of you know, just long term certainly distance living. Uh. I mean, and this is something I come back to again. We've spoken about social media on this show plenty of times. We've talked about the the the problems with our current social media systems, and just looking online these days, one sees, first of all, one sees some of the strengths of

social media emerging. You can see like, oh, well, this is what it was supposed to do. It's connecting us in especially in times when we are physically distant from each other. Uh. It can be very comforting to have that kind of connection. On the other hand, I also see examples of the negative aspects of social media, unfortunately

amplified in this scenario as well. Um So, I think that's going to be a continuing challenge over the weeks ahead, as we figure out how to best use these social media tools and these uh, these these connective tools, how to use them effectively and in al ways that the foster social communication and social connectiveness without you know, giving into these negative aspects that are generally built into the platforms where you're using. Yeah, I think you're exactly right.

I mean, this it's funny I'm usually somebody who's pretty focused on the negative aspects of social media, but this week has really made me think about the good aspects, like the fact that it allows you to connect directly and often in a higher fidelity way with your friends

and family. You know, the idea of doing video chats with family and stuff like that, and that that can be really helpful at these times, like you might just need to see other faces, you know, the other people that you care about, uh, not just hear their voice over the phone and uh. And so that kind of stuff I think is great. Now. The darker side I think, of course, is that we have definitely seen social media as a source for the spread of potentially dangerous misinformation

about this, uh, this ongoing pandemic. And so I wanted to share one thing on here, Robert, if it's okay with you. I posted a little bit about this in the Facebook discussion module for our show, UM, because a lot of people have been asking, you know, they said they had frustration about what to do about friends and family and acquaintances posting misinformation on the internet, and like like how to address that. At this time, I will say that I'm someone who generally does not advocate arguing

with people on the internet. I think it is almost always unproductive and often counterproductive. I would say that arguing probably isn't the right word. But but this is the time, I think, to participate in the information battle. Like it. If people are sharing potentially dangerous misinformation about how this virus spreads or how you can protect yourself and stuff

like that, this is the time to get into that conversation. Absolutely, we should be able to come together in these moments, sign the common ground and fight against the inhuman uh enemy that is this virus. Yeah, totally, and and information is one of our best weapons in this battle, like knowing what works and what doesn't, having a solid information source, having a clear understanding of how disease spreads, what can

be done to stop it, That all really matters. So I just wanted to share a few things that came to my mind about what to do when you see people spreading misinformation online. This one might be obvious, but the first one that I wanted to say was just make sure that you know what you're talking about before

you go in and try to correct somebody else. It may very well be that you're working off of outdated information information landscape is changing really fast right now, and so so do your own double checking before you before you start a fight that might turn out to be pointless. That's right. I mean I I found myself over the past few days in conversation with somebody, and they'll have a key v on in the background, and they'll suddenly be pretty to an update that I don't have, just

by virtue of me not being plugged in. Uh. For you know, ten minutes you can you can miss something. Uh. And a minute ago I said fight, I shouldn't. We're not encouraging fighting of any kind. I guess. I just mean, like you know, in any form of disagreement with somebody, you know you've got your disagreement bucks, and you want

to spend that budget wisely. Um So, if you are actually confident that the information you see somebody sharing is incorrect, I would say, I mean this it's not a one size fits all, but my experience tells me that a good strategy for dealing with it is to message the person privately first instead of commenting publicly. I think that with this strategy you might get more people to take down misleading original posts. If you don't like embarrass them

in front of their friends. Public shaming often has a counterproductive effect that causes people to get defensive and double down on what they originally did. Right. I like this this point because you're leaning into person to person communication instead of the ultimately weird person to person communication for performance that is, commenting on somebody's Facebook post or what have you, or certainly their Twitter tweet because because because yeah,

like you could. You might not even be intending to to publicly shame them, but you are engaging in something that is at least semi public. Yeah, and it might feel like public shaming to them, even if you don't mean it that way, especially with everybody, everybody's UH levels are a little off right now, or maybe a little more inclined to take personal offense at something like that. You know, it's it's These are not the best of

circumstances for for for misunderstandings like that totally. But then I would say the next step is okay, if you try that and they don't remove the misinformation after a private message, then it probably is time to post publicly and again, not be confrontational, don't be a jerk, don't try to own them, just post corrections or sources for the benefit of onlookers, so that somebody can see this being answered with correct information. Again, don't it's not about

it's not about owning people. It's not about showing that they did something stupid. In fact, what I would say is that generally you want to avoid all forms of you language in these communications. You you know, don't say like you're posting bs, you're posting pseudoscience, you're doing dangerous stuff.

Just focus on the information and the facts themselves. One example of this in action at a quaintance of mine on on Facebook had posted something and I just responded to it by saying, the Associated Foreign Press has identified some issues with this particular post. Uh. And then I uh that they had shared and I included a link to that a FP article. Uh. So you know, I didn't engage in you. I didn't say you know anything

of the sword. I just said like, hey, here's some information about the thing you just shared, and then they took it down. That's great. I think that's an ideal interaction. Like, there's no reason to unnecessarily multiply the nastiness of these interactions. People are going to be on edge enough. Yeah, Alright. On that note, we're going to take a quick break, but we'll be right back. Thank alright, we're back. Hey.

So we're still getting used to this format, and we realized we were going to make an announcement at the top of the episode, and we forgot to do it. So maybe here's the place to make the announcement. We're gonna be publishing some playlists of classic stuff to blow your mind episodes. Uh. You know, we heard that this might be useful to some people while they're you know, trying to to find entertainment and comfort and things to

do while they are social distancing in their homes. So first thing, we're basically going to do a Halloween and March thing, or as as I've been calling it, Halftober. Oh yeah, finally looking back on October now, uh, and certainly those episodes that we did, So these are going to be ten episode batches of past episodes that that we that Joe and I have personally curated. We're going to make sure that these don't drop in between a

part one and a part two of anything. But hopefully this will serve to put more engaging content out there and won't make you feel overwhelmed and hopefully won't be disruptive. Certainly, let us know how you feel about it once we start implementing it, but you're probably gonna see this on a few other shows within this network as well. Uh. And yeah, it was actually pretty fun to go back through the catalog and pick out a week of in this case, October related stuff. Uh, and then a couple

of other fun themes ahead. That's right, So yeah, download the playlists if you want, but also don't don't be worried that we're going to playlists instead of our regular episodes. We're doing everything we can to keep stuff to blew your mind. Brand new episodes coming out on schedule, So so we're still doing our thing. Yeah. In fact, uh for next week, I believe we have part one already recorded.

We recorded is the last thing we recorded in the studio before uh we uh we put that that sort of production on hiatus, and then we're going to record Joan are going to record part two of this series, uh sometime this week. So yeah, normal stuff to blow your episodes are right around the corner. Hopefully that everything will be back back and moving next week, because they're really fun episodes. I'm excited about them, and they don't have anything to do with infectious disease, so I'm excited

about that angle as well. Wait do they not? Does it never come in? Maybe not? Oh well it might show. I don't know, it might come up once or twice, but for the most part, I don't think it's involved. They's got to slip a few germs in there. Yeah, all right, So next, I guess we were thinking about what talking about what people could do to help keep their brains from melting. Apart from listening to a bunch

of old episodes of our podcast. You know, if you if you're stuck at home, you're trying to be responsible, do all the social distancing you can. Uh what what are some ways to to keep the mind agile and and uh, you know, not find yourself giving into all of your your worst mental impulses. Well, you know, obviously escape into fiction and fantasy and video games and so

forth is great when you can do it. Um, you know, to to quote the great uh and Zevon, uh lock the gate scoofy take my hand and lead me through the world of self. But uh, but it's hard to do that, like NonStop uh and and this is where I think mindfulness is UH is really important. So if you've listened to the show long enough, you know I'm

a big advocate of mindfulness practices, especially yoga. And given the amount of stress, disruption, anxiety, and uncertainty in everyone's life right now, it is the perfect time to maintain, resume, or even begin a mindfulness practice. But at the same time, disruption and social distancing can make it very difficult. So just a quick reminder about what mindfulness practices are and

what they are not. Mindfulness practices can allow us to temporarily remove ourselves from the inner monologue, from the default mode network signals that just where it can wear against us over time UH. To focus on the moment, to focus on the breath, to focus on on something that is that is not just this this this inner storm and it's such. These practices can help with anxiety and stress.

At the same time, these are not magical cures, and they are certainly not replacements for medical UH and or psychiatric care. If you want more info about the particulars of these distinctions, I urge you to check out a pair of our past episodes. We did one that was an interview with An Swanson titled Science of Yoga, and then there was another one titled Meditation lab Empathy and Energy.

Now for my own part, you know, I have to say I I had grown rather accustomed in my life to swimming at the y m c A several times a week, attending two to three yoga classes both at the y m c A and at local studios, local Yoda's yoga studios, in addition to some studios Yoda Studios. But Yoda is very yoga in this practice. I've never looked it up before, but I got I kind of assumed that his name is basically uh uh, you know,

fantasy sci fi ease for for for yoga. So I had grown to grown to accustom to a particular rhythm of of mindfulness and sort of self care. However, now the local y m c A, like I think most of these, not all of these facilities are is closed. My local yoga studios are all physically closed. My wife and I are at home, are seven year old is

at home. And as many of you are finding out as well, teleschooling comes with an adjustment period, shall we say, So, it's hard to make time for meditative self care at the moment, but it's also very balancing and rewarding of for a time like this, Like just yesterday, I managed to squeeze in just a little yoga time for myself and and then I found that it made a huge difference in my ability to roll with a little frustration that occurred around dinner time. Um, So I'd like to

just briefly run through some options. And these are not you know, one size fits all options, but I just want to run through some options for those of you out there are that are in search of mindfulness options

at this time. So first of all, check and see if your local yoga studios, meditation studios, y m c as, fitness clubs, et cetera are offering virtual classes in one form or another, because many are doing this, some were already doing this to begin with, and it's a great way to get some level of the social interaction that your class entails, uh and the mindfulness practice and even the exercise that you need, all while supporting local teachers

and businesses. So check around, because I'm finding some studios and centers are also even just offering free streams right now? Is they you know, either just as a way to sort of spread the word, to to just do something good for for everyone out there, or just to get there their technology up and running to where they can make it part of their their business model to sustain them through a difficult time. And then a plus side of this, of course, means that a lot of local

places become broadly available via this method. So perhaps you moved away from your favorite yoga studio, Well, now it's a great time to reconnect and see if they're offering any kind of online support for you. On top of that, there are variously there are some great apps and streaming services out there. I want to say that neither of these are current advertising advertisers or anything for the show, but I'm just mentioning a couple that I personally have

experience with. There's an there's an app and website online service titled Glow g l O formally Yoga Glow. I've used this before. It contains tons of yoga and meditation videos for all skill levels. UH. For instance, there was a period of time where I had a shoulder injury and it prevented me from doing a lot of different yoga practices. UH in a way that I was pleased with. I was able to find some practices that were specifically tailored for people who had to go easy on their shoulder,

that sort of thing. Uh, So that's a good source. Simple Habit is another one. This is a meditation app. And this one I believe is a previous advertiser on the show um some months back, but during that time I got to try it out and it seems like a pretty solid way of of exploring meditative possibilities for you. But these are just two examples that I have personal experience with. There are a bunch of them out there, so I would encourage you to just, you know, look around.

Maybe there's one you can you can do a free trial on, uh, try out, see how it goes. And then there are various streaming opportunities that are going on, uh with yoga teachers, meditation teachers, uh, you know, across social media platforms, on YouTube, etcetera. All Right, we gotta take a break, but we'll be right back with more than alright, we're back. Yeah. So we we've also been trying to find ways to keep our keep our brains healthy.

And I will say one thing that's been very useful to us is just getting out of the house to walk, you know, not going to anywhere that would be uh, that would be crowded with other people, or that would have you know, places where you'd be touching public surfaces. But just getting outside and going on a walk. And as long as you keep your distance from others, you're not like handling you know, stuff that other people have been around or interacting with. I think your risk is

extremely low just walking around. Yeah, and now we do want to stress that things can change, as in the eventity lockdown where you were asked to not leave your homes. But generally speaking this is true. Oh yeah, I hadn't thought about the possibility of the lockdown affecting this, uh, if that comes about. But but yeah, I mean if

if it is not prohibited where you are. Obviously, just walking around outside can be relieving, it can be refreshing, It can make you feel a kind of mental reset, uh in a way that does not involve you getting within the danger radius of other people or you know, like handling door knobs and stuff like that. And you can even wave at people and their dogs, which is which is nice. I personally have enjoyed working a fair amount on my front poor on the weather has been

nice and people have been out on the walks. I can wave to them, I can say hi and uh, and that's good. Occasionally a child will make a break for it to come up and ask where my son is and they you know, some parents will have to intervene and say all right, nope, nope, comeback safe distance. Uh. The learning curve with the children on this this new way of approaching things. UH. But but yeah, definitely encourage you to consider nature walks, neighborhood walks if you have

the ability to do so. You know, just again, provided there's enough space to ensure social distancing. UM. Connection with nature in end of itself boast proven effects for physical and mental well being. We've talked about that on the show before. UH. Walking meditation on top of this is UH is the way that you can potentially contribute to to at least the the mental well being aspect of this, adding a meditative practice to your walk. UH. There are

various guides to this online. You can find podcasts related to wall king meditation as well as videos. And I I've I've only really dipped my toes in walking meditation in the past. UM, I do enjoy walking, but walking meditation kind of adds a practice on top of that. Uh, that is, it kind of forces you to too again in the same way you might focus on your breathing, You're you're going to focus on your breath and you're

going to focus on your steps. So I would I would encourage anyone that's interested to look into it, especially if you if you find it maybe more difficult to disconnect on your walks these days. Yeah, I think that's totally right. I mean, I've been thinking about how it's Um, I think it's important to try to find ways to make sure that you are experiencing and displaying whatever kind

of normality or normalcy is allowed. Um, you know, whatever doesn't actually increase increased disease transmission risk, but helps you maintain the sense of a normal life and and not feel like, uh, not feel the anxiety creeping in, not feeling like everything has changed at once. I think that kind of thing is important and not just for you, but it's important for other people to see that in you as well. Right, on one hand, it is really

important to see people taking this infectious disease seriously. But on the other hand, like you know, the the opposite side of the coin would be panic, which is its

own kind of horrible epidemic. And so finding whatever kind of normalcy and comforting routine you can within all this, and while adhering to best practices is very important, that's right, Yeah, it certainly don't give into panic, don't don't give into fear, because we we all remember the litany against fear, right, Oh, yeah, we we've made great use of that in our household. I must not fear. Fear is the mind killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will

face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone, there will be nothing. Only I will remain. That's the Benny Jesseret Litany against fear from Doune. Of course, we learned that from Paul Trades. Yes, and uh and yeah, I have used this in the past, like legitimately used it as as a mantra because in and of itself it is kind of a mindfulness mantra.

But it but it also uh, it actually can be pretty specifically inspiring on a couple of levels regarding COVID nineteen. I mean, these these measures of social distancing and even lockdowns and quarantines that we've been discussing. Uh. In effect, we're talking about letting the pandemic pass over and through us, but at a pace we can handle being the the

the force of control, uh, that that mitigates it. And it's again also just a good insight into fear and the uh you know the power of fear and what we can do individually to try and stand against it. Yeah. Absolutely, Um, as as long as we're we're we're quoting comforting Litany's one thing I've been thinking more and more about is um. You know, it's not just normal routines and comfort but this is an important time to try your best to foster a sense of community. I mean you can't do

that in person right now. For for me, this has been a great time to read Walt Whitman, you know, the poet, the poet of masses of people and communities. Uh. This morning I was reading the poem crossing Brooklyn Ferry, Robert do you know that one? I don't remember this one now? Well, it's a it's a wonderful poem. It's it's too long to read here, but I kind of did want to read a selection from it, uh, that

I've found sort of inspiring. At this time when he's he's speaking in his mind the idea of the you know, the masses of people within the city's coming and going, and he's feeling this kind of like infinite, ineffable bond with all these other people, and uh, you know, and and he sort of speaks of coming through crises and uncertainty, and towards the end of the poem, ah, he begins to to say this. He says, appearances now or henceforth,

indicate what you are. You necessary film, continue to envelope the soul about my body for me and your body for you. Be hung our divinest aromas. Thrive cities, bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and sufficient rivers, expand being that which none else is perhaps more spiritual, Keep your places objects than which none else is more lasting. You have waited, you always wait, you dumb beautiful ministers.

We receive you with free sense at last, and our insatiate. Henceforward, not you anymore shall be able to foil us or withhold yourselves from us. We use you, and do not cast you aside. We plant you permanently within us. We fathom you, not we love you. There is perfection in you. Also. You furnish your parts towards eternity great or small. You furnish your parts towards the soul. Oh that's beautiful. It's a wonderful poem. I recommend people read it. I always

uh find myself. I don't know. I like to read wal Whitman when when I want to feel U when I want to feel not just better in general, but specifically better about other people and better about people. I don't know. Yeah, yeah, it's it is in many ways. It is a good time for inspiring poetry. Um, if you have poems that you hold dear and now it's perhaps a good time to unearth them. Uh looked them up online and uh and read them again. Now let

me ask you this, Joe, how's your how's your dog handling? All? This is? Uh? Oh, it's it's the jackpot for him. And suddenly suddenly his people are home all the time, and he's just getting so much attention and so many snuggles while we're working. It's that this is like the best thing that ever happened to Charlie. Yeah, I feel like our cat is in a similar boat. Like suddenly there's always a warm lap around, there's always someone to inquire about when the next wet food can is being opened.

Uh And in my feet, my socked feet are around even more for the cat to hunt an attack while I'm you know, getting my steps in just sort of nervously walking around the house. I've been doing a lot of that too, just random pacing way more than usual. Even my wife took my son on a nature walk yesterday. I stayed at the house. I did some yoga, but I didn't have like my phone doesn't capture that. I

didn't have my phone on me anyway. But then afterwards we compared our steps for the day, and uh, I think I had equaled or exceeded hers just through a nervous pacing around the house. So and it has a it has a purpose. Uh, well, you know what, I think maybe we can conquer some of that anxiety, not just with pace thing, but by staying busy. And we are definitely going to stay busy working on the show.

That's right, um yeah, and again hopefully it will be uh comforting entertaining, informative for you, and it will be, um, you know, if you're a regular listener of the show, it will be a normal part of your life that's going to continue, even if other things are kind of in a state of transition. All right, in the meantime, let's say, first of all, if you want to socially

connect with us and with other listeners. Uh, we do not personally engage on our social media platforms that much, but uh, there is a Facebook group for our show. It is the Stuff to Blow your Mind discussion module. You have to ask to be letting in, and you have to like answer a question which is just it's an easy one, like what's the title of the show? That sort of thing. Uh. So it's pretty easy to get in, and there's some basic rules to maintain order

and civility there. But it's a great way to connect sometimes with us, but more generally with other listeners. So if you need that in your life right now, uh, go look it up. Otherwise, if you want to check out the show, you can find stuff to Blow your Mind wherever you get your podcasts and wherever that happens to be just rate, review and subscribe. Those are the actions you can take to help our show. Huge thanks as always to our excellent audio producer Seth Nicholas Johnson.

If you would like to get in touch with us, you still can. You can let us know topics you'd like to hear in the future. You can give us feedback on this episode or any other I don't know what your feedback about this episode would be, except I don't know people. People who you know might be able to weigh in about their own mindfulness practices, how they're coping with changes, or just hey, tell us what I'm interested in, just knowing what what video games are you playing?

What what books are you're reading, what movies you're watching, what are you know, some of the pleasant things that you're you know, maybe even amplifying your life right now to help get you through it. I just had a great idea, actually we should put together with Stuff to Blow your Mind community sourced reading ist. Yeah, for for the social distancing period, So yeah, maybe we will try to do that. But also yeah, anyway, I never got

to the address. So if you want to get in touch with us, it is contact at Stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of i heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, this, the i heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you're listening to your favorite shows.