President Chris called the meeting to order at 12:03 and MaryBeth Hockenberry led us in the pledge and prayer.
ATTENDANCE: In all 28 people attended the virtual meeting.
Guests included our speaker, Dr Richard Carlson; 8 students of the month
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Peg Sennett/ Dave Nelson - Dave gave the early history of the gazebo downtown; Barb Rupp said there was no update from the borough.
Chris Helt - shared that 8 hanover Rotarians attended the virtual Foundation Dinner; Dr Jess received his award for Operation Braveheart along with the Dr in the Philippines who did the operations; and Jess was proud to announce that our Club was mentioned many times during the evening program.
Chris Helt - Rotary Means Business is coming up on Nov 12th.
Kevin Clark - asked about the status of returning to in-person meetings and some discussion followed. The Board will receive an update next Tuesday and then it will be reported to the whole Club.
ROTARY MINUTE: Chris Neri shared her history with the Club from 1990 until today, focusing on the introduction of women to Rotary worldwide. She also explained why she joined and what it has meant to her.
PROGRAM: Dr richard Carlson - The Psychological Impact of Covid-19
Dr Carlson, who has maintained a practice in Hanover for the last 40 years, explained the psychological affect on us of being in this pandemic.
Some of what we learned -
- Mental health is the measure of Psychological impact
- stress is caused by the threat of illness - stress from
- since this whole pandemic started we have been getting mixed messages which causes confusion
- media pictures have created panic
- fear of lost jobs; panic buying to stock up when things begin disappearing off shelves
- all of these things have led to a crisis which is the birthplace of stress
- when things change stress builds, and as humans we crave the predictable. we don't want to be uncomfortable or moved from our comfort zones
- we don't like changes to our daily routines and this pandemic has forced us to change in many ways. The virus is not going away soon so we have to learn how to live with it
- children are home from school learning virtually and parents are picking up extra duties by having to become "teachers" along with everything else they already have to do
- all of this causes anxiety and we cope via substance abuse; suicidal thoughts creep in and it all adds up
- add to this the political climate, and the social unrest we see on tv each night
- people feel a loss of control which leads to distorted thinking patterns - "black and white thinking; overgeneralizing thinking;Jumping to conclusions; which all give way to worry. And worry is negative.
Stress is normal in life and there is positive stress and negative stress. But we have been inundated with the negative this year.
So what can we do about it? In short the answer is HOPE
- employ the serenity prayer because there are many things that are out of your control
- focus on the things in life that we can control, and there are many
- keep your daily routines and schedules as much as possible
- be kind and stay connected to people, don't isolate, even if much of it virtual contact
- take care of your physical and emotional needs and don't ignore them
NEXT WEEK'S PROGRAM - PAUL BERG ON HIS TRIP TO HANOI, DUBAI, BEIRUT, TUNIS