“The Buddha asked a student: “If a person is struck by an arrow, is it painful? If the person is struck by a second arrow, is it even more painful?” He then went on to explain, “In life, we cannot always control the first arrow. However, the second arrow is our reaction to the first. And with this second arrow comes the possibility of choice.” We are experiencing the first arrow of the coronavirus, impacted by staffing, supply shortages, travel restrictions, and more. …In short, the first arrow causes unavoidable pain, and our resistance to it creates fertile ground for all the second arrows…. It’s important to remember that these second arrows — our emotional and psychological response to crises — are natural and very human. …The way to overcome this natural tendency is to build our mental resilience through mindfulness. Mental resilience, especially in challenging times like the present, means managing our minds in a way that increases our ability to face the first arrow and to break the second before it strikes us. Resilience is the skill of noticing our own thoughts, unhooking from the non-constructive ones, and re-balancing quickly.”
