Well, this is certainly a surreal time to be alive! With COVID-19 spreading to countries all over the world and threatening the lives of millions, everything has seemingly changed overnight.

In just a few short weeks, we’ve gone from living our normal lives to seeing schools shut down, restaurants close, fears of a recession skyrocket, and the livelihood of small businesses threatened at the prospect of indefinite shutdowns. We’ve been asked to separate ourselves from our friends and neighbors to prevent the spread of the virus, and we’ve seen that no matter who you are or what you do, something like this can change the way you live your life.

With everything that’s going on, there’s a lot of fear and uncertainty right now. As someone who likes to feel like I’m in control of my own destiny, all of this uncertainty can be hard to live with. Conversely in any situation, there are things that I can control, and right now is no exception.

I may not be able to control how much toilet paper people are hoarding, but I can control my decision to purchase only what my family needs.

I can’t control if others follow social distancing guidelines, but I can choose to embrace it myself to protect my health and the health of my community.

I can’t control other people’s feelings and actions, but I can control my own positive attitude in the face of uncertainty.

And I can’t control how long this situation will last, but I can choose to stay calm and enjoy the time I get to spend at home with my family.

Situations like this pandemic have a way of showing you what truly matters. One of the things that I’ve realized over the past few weeks is that when you focus on the things you can’t control, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by negative emotions: fear, anger, helplessness, and uncertainty. But when you shift your focus to the things that you can control, you experience happiness, hope, patience, and acceptance.

Yes, the world is a scary place right now. Yes, the future seems uncertain and frightening. Yet we have survived scary situations before, and we’re going to make it through this one. Rather than giving into the fear, let’s band together and focus on the things we can control. Let’s control the way we treat each other and choose empathy and kindness. Let’s control the way we act with our families and choose to use this time to love and cherish being together. And above all else, let’s control our own social distancing to protect our communities and do our part to bring this pandemic to an end.

Someday, all of this will be a memory. Importantly by focusing on what we can control, we can ensure that it’s a memory that makes us stronger.