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When we humans face a threat, we band together for assistance and protection. We need each other’s support for our mental and physical health.

A little over two years ago, our local community gathered forces to rise above the 500-year flood disaster. Now, we are in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis and its paradox: in order to help each other, we have to stay apart. Social distancing is the only method we currently have to slow the spread of this disease.

But to get through this, we still need each other. And keeping our social distance is becoming increasingly difficult for all of us, financially, mentally and emotionally.

How can we stay connected to each other in new ways to give and receive support? According to Jennifer Wickham, L.P.C. in her recent article on the Mayo Clinic website, we can use both external and internal strategies to strengthen our ties with each other.

For external strategies, she explains that we involve our outward senses like hearing, sight and taste, and for internal strategies we turn inward to find shared meaning. Let’s explore different practical ideas for both, starting with the external.

Perhaps most importantly, we all need someone to talk with about our feelings and worries, whether in person at home, on the telephone, or via video conference. For this reason, checking on others is crucial right now. We can make a list of those we care about and reach out to a few each day.

I would like to thank the Niles High School staff who have checked on our students through telephone and video conference calls. Our YMCA has also been calling our senior members regularly to make sure they are okay.

Secondly, moving our regular social interactions online can restore some normalcy to our days. For example, since my family couldn’t gather to celebrate my brother’s birthday, we baked his favorite cake and sang to him on a video conference call. We can try virtual dinner dates, coffee dates, board games and exercise classes to preserve pieces of our routine.

If we are sequestered at home with other people, we can find meaningful ways to interact face-to-face by playing games, cooking together, or tackling a project.

Internal strategies for connection are crucial but harder to describe. We must reflect individually on why we are social distancing in the first place. First, we have to realize that our choices affect others. Like Surgeon General Adams said, act like you have the virus, because you might.

To find greater purpose, we can also identify by name the family members and friends we are protecting by social distancing. How does our protection of these loved ones help our wider community?

This is a difficult time. My older son is a high school senior, and my heart hurts for him. May we continue to protect and celebrate all of the lives in our community. Let’s reach inward to find our personal reasons for staying apart, and reach outward to help each other through this. 

Chrissie Kaufmann is a group fitness instructor at the YMCA of Greater Michiana.