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Those of you that know me, know that I’m an optimist and pretty positive guy who prides himself on the ability to reframe challenges and loss into opportunities for growth and learning. In the words that follow I will do the same, but not without first shining a spotlight on the elephant in the room. The sleeping giant that has been hiding in the shadow of the major health pandemic is starting to rear its ugly head and we need, as a connected human community, to pay close attention.

While I have been speaking about the pending mental health crisis and prevention options to many entrepreneurs and leaders who are already diving in to help uncover solutions for the Coronavirus, I have not spoken up here – to you. Until now.

In the past 48 hours, two of my lifelong friends have lost their children – children I have known and loved since they came into this world. It was not the Virus that took their lives, however. It was something much more widespread, and more or less omitted from the headlines. Aside from my personal loss, I am troubled that these incidents are indicators of the countless undocumented cases and pending deaths we are likely to witness (or not) from the mental health pandemic – a death toll that could reach 10X number of lives taken by Coronavirus.

The first of my young friends – a healthy and outwardly happy 20-some year old with a job he loved – died of alcohol poisoning. The other – a handsome 17-year old student and athlete excited to enter college next year – died of a drug overdose. They both died alone in their rooms, in quarantine.

I can’t guarantee it, but I can be pretty damn sure that neither of them was trying to kill themselves. What I do know is they were trying to kill the pain they felt inside – the voices of those pesky demons that kept getting louder as they, unprepared to cope, felt cut off from many of the fundamental resources that we as humans need to not only thrive but to build our immunity and resilience to life’s many challenges.

Those of us in the wellness field have studied and developed these foundation skills, resources and mindsets, and most of you know reading this is familiar with them as well. They include positive social interaction, ongoing reassurance and validation, regular movement and physical exercise, proper sleep, healthy eating, structure and routine, a cap on negative input from news and social media, positive and trusted circles of friends, family, and community, a sense of purpose, growth, mentorship, social and emotional skills (EQ), mindfulness and meditation practices, exposure to nature, and ongoing shots inspiration and hope.

There is going to be a continued and escalating number of cases like those of my young friends, and escalating number of cases like my young friends, and worse, from the negative mental health fallout of the COVID 19 crisis.

The Good News = We have the remedies. Unlike needing to come up with a vaccine before we can manage the Coronavirus, we already know the solutions for building the kind of confidence, resilience, and wellbeing that will help people prevent and recover quickly from potentially life-altering effects of mental and emotional challenges.

A few weeks ago, I helped coach and advise on a global EXO COVID 19 Challenge with nearly 300 entrepreneurs from around the globe. I encouraged the teams to focus on the sleeping giant, and some of them took that to heart. The winning concept that came out of that 24-hour marathon of 20 sprints was called Wellness World – a hub for trusted resources to boost the resilience, psychological state and physical wellbeing of millions of people who are currently quarantined and lacking the awareness, training, and well-curated resources to deal with the intense levels of fear and challenges they are facing at this time.

The solutions I’m speaking about are not the intensive personal counseling and oversight required for those with clear psychological disorders or predisposition to clinical depression, suicide, or addiction.

Granted, we will need a lot of those experts as well. My focus here, however, is on non-pharma, scalable and scientifically proven practices and protocols for developing the physical and psychological resilience that keep our immunity system optimized for prevention and recovery.

For this first-level of support, we can digitally distribute trusted and familiar resources at scale for supporting exercise, mindful movement, online connectivity, meditation, music, and so much more. We have global communities of teachers, coaches, trainers, healers, practitioners and successful global brands offering everything from basic wellness, mindfulness and fitness practices for the general public to more advanced self-mastery and high-performance protocols for leaders and those on the frontline.

Whether the EXO sprint uncovered the best solution, or a Wellness World can be funded, built out, and scaled quickly enough or not is the point. The key is that all the resources are available. We just need to get them to the people in need in a trusted, easy to use, incentivized and engaging enough way that people use them, and now.

Maybe we should consider allocating part of the government stimulus package and corporate benefit programs into providing these kinds of services – not only offering them to the public but doubling down on investment into these support systems for their leadership, employees, and teams.

To be fair, I recognize that many companies, leaders in the wellness field, and communities are doing their best to do just that. My hat goes off to them, while my heart still goes out to those less in less fortunate environments.

One thing we can all do today as individuals is reach out to those in our inner circles and communities to check-in. I mean REALLY CHECK-IN, before someone we know but might not have thought of, checks out.

I also encourage us – as purpose-driven and compassionate leaders – to double down on our practices.

 

In times of crisis, we need to level-up our self-care and self-mastery protocols and mindsets if we are going to have the capacity to serve and be role models in these highly disruptive times – to be the calm in the eye of the storm.

 

While it’s absolutely necessary to quarantine to stop the spread of a COVID 19 pandemic, I hope we can do so with an acute awareness of the possible repercussions and take real action to minimize those as well. Think of our end game as a triple bottom line: (1) to stop people from dying from the virus; (2) to minimize the mental health fallout before it becomes the next pandemic; (3) to take this opportunity to give and train people in new optimal living practices and mindsets that will ultimately help them live healthier and happier lives.

On the macro level, in addition to lowering health care costs in the future, this holistic and comprehensive approach just might help us build a more intelligent, compassionate and flourishing global community. The same tools and practices that help us to flourish as human beings are the ones, we need to help us build our resilience to face life’s obstacles and challenges. If this time of crisis and need can be a catalyst for motivating people to change and try new solutions, then this is the time to plant those seeds of change and growth – for ourselves, for our families, and our communities.

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About the Author 

Frank Fitzpatrick is a Creative Visioneer, Engagement Expert and High-Performance Coach on the Faculty of Singularity University’s Exponential Medicine.

To connect, go to FrankFitzpatrick.com

To learn more about working 1-on1 with Frank, go to BeyondPerformance.Life

 

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