At no other time in my 68-year life have I been asked this question, nor have I asked this question of others as often as I do now, and with a distinctly deeper level of authenticity.
I see many patients in my clinical practice every day. Pre-March 15, 2020, I might have some patients ask me the question, “how am I”, but by and large, we both know that they are in the office for me to find out how they are. But now, I genuinely feel their concern for me, especially regarding covid-19. And also now.. when I ask, “how are you doing”….. we both either assume I’m asking about covid-19 stress and previous to a few days ago, election stress as well. We both know that we want to have that conversation first, before we move on to the clinical concerns that we have been working on or are new, or the ones I need to know from a new patient. We all seem to know, what “ how are you doing” is referring to.
So my question to you is… “how are you doing?”
- How are you holding up educating your children from home
- How are you doing if you live alone
- How are you doing working from home
- How are you doing if you lost your job
- How are you doing not seeing your usual friends
- How are you doing not seeing your family members who live outside your home
- How are you doing without your yoga class
- How are you doing without your gym class
- How are you doing without your usual social network of activities
- How much alcohol are you drinking
- How much pot are you smoking
- Are there other recreational drugs you are using
- Are you getting daily exercise
- Are you getting outdoors daily and into some kind of nature scape
- How are your eating habits
- How is your sleep
- How is your mood and mental health
- How is your physical health- Do you have any new problems or worsening problems
I encourage you to keep up with the basics. I pass along something I learned from a mentor of mine from almost 40 years ago, Dr. Agatha Thrash—a woman who lived true to her beliefs and convictions as an orthodox Seventh Day Adventist. It is called, NEWSTART.
N=nutrition
E=exercise
W=water
S=sunshine
T=temperance
A=air
R=rest
T=trust in divine power
Let’s start anew or restart- for ourselves, our loved ones, our community, our country, our planet, our fellow human beings across the world.
I do sincerely hope that you are finding ways to stay steady, stay strong, stay healthy, stay connected.
