Anticipation, the common ground for acts of optimism

Many in my family have had their first dose of a covid vaccine, here in Malaysia. I get my first dose next week and I am looking forward to it. This was not the case as recently as a week ago. So, what changed?

Vaccinations came a little later to Malaysia. We observed mass vaccination drives elsewhere in first-world nations and wondered when it would come here. Then, like magic, it was here, catching some citizens off-guard. Something that was happening in a faraway land was now at our door. I was one of those citizens. Having read feedback on the side effects experienced by some, including fatalities, I was not sure how to process the information I was reading. I was not against vaccinating, but neither was I rushing to get vaccinated. I was waiting but unsure for what.

Our brains, inherited from early man, tend to focus on the bad news than good news. After the first private-led vaccination drive in early May, when some close friends and family had secured slots, I noticed a general shift in perception towards vaccinations. My perception was shifting too.

Perception and the brain. Our brain can make us act in a certain manner without being consciously aware of our actions based on key neuroscience principles:

• Focus on the bad

• Seek greater agency (control)

• To socially belong

Our brain’s primary function is to keep us safe and alive at all times, fight or flight. Early man’s main focus was to look out for danger, the Saber-toothed tiger. In modern man, the Saber-toothed tiger has been replaced by general danger including stress and the danger of the unknown. The danger now includes situations that we cannot fully comprehend and worse, situations that we potentially cannot navigate out of. Making us freeze. It was simple in the past. You killed the tiger or the tiger killed you. No time to freeze. It was relatively quick with a definite outcome.

Now, situations are not straightforward leaving modern man, at times, stressed and without a sense of control. There are more variables now. For example, vaccinations provide us with some control but not definitively. There are variants of the virus to be considered and hence, vaccines can only do so much. We could quickly revert to flight or freeze if we allowed ourselves to.

But modern man is also a social creature. It matters to him/her what others around him are doing. When a majority in his/her community is behaving a certain way, the willingness and wanting to do the same increases. And this certainly contributed to my shift in perception. With more in my immediate community getting vaccinated, I felt the need to safeguard my community by doing my part. And this can help to override the tendency to revert to flight or freeze.

I simplify the principles a little here to highlight the gist of my message. Modern man is more complex than I state here but the organising principles of the brain remain the same for all of us in most circumstances. Ultimately, how we interpret the information presented to us, what we do with it, and the behaviour of our community matters.

But there is an overriding component that matters even more and that is CHOICE. Choice helps us increase our agency and as we begin to exit covid we are going to need to engage choice even more. By choosing how we interpret, amalgamate, and propagate information to others around us and beyond. I believe, this is what will determine our future beyond covid.

In my LinkedIn post last week, I wrote about the emotion of anticipation: to enjoy the future before it arrives. One comment from my connection was on how positive the comments thread was. There were many optimistic acts shared to my question of anticipation – what you can do now to prepare for your future. My response, to my connection, was that anticipation served as common ground for acts of optimism to propagate within communities. And choice sits at the heart of it. And with optimism, I mean realistic optimism.

Optimism can be contagious but so can pessimism. Which do you choose? Because it matters in how you navigate your future and your community’s!

Connect with me at yoga@yoganesadurai.com