The difficult world of self-restraint in Covid-19 pandemic and how we can amplify it

Self-restraint is typically defined as the ability to stop yourself doing or saying something that you want to because you know it is better not to. In common parlance this terminology is often used to typically stop someone to avoid actions or words which may not be in the interest of the person or the community at large.

We all are in very uncertain times, times that our generation has never seen before, times that tends to challenge our existence as a community or a species. We are all fighting with an invisible enemy, an enemy that is versatile, fast adapting and competing with us in a race that we thought was a 100-meter race but by every stretch of imagination it now seems to be a marathon.

The subject matter in discussion is not whether we will win this marathon or the virus will, which is mutating fast, an attribute seen in species which tend to survive longer, the discussion is what we need to do as citizens or as a civilized, educated community to beat the virus. In an article published in ‘The Pioneer’ written by Gauri Chaudhari, titled, "Why aren't they listening", she, taking the help of psychology and human behaviour, clearly defines the mind-set and the thought process unique to us which forces us to do what many of us are doing and think the way we are thinking and the only way to fight this pandemic, as of today, is self-restraint.

Let’s take a deep dive into the elements of this behaviour and thought process.

The first element, is the bloated self-esteem phenomena, which compels us to portray ourselves as extra strong, extra bold, extra powerful, what in common parlance one would refer to as the macho-man feeling.

The second element is, are the people who tend to be the trendsetters behaving the way they should be.

The third element is, are we really wary of the pandemic or are we just trying to reflect a pseudo feeling that nothing like that exists and I am totally free, the feeling that it cannot happen to me, it’s a disease of a section of the society, I am protected and others around me need to bother about themselves and not worry about me.

While I mention these, it is important to state that how and what we communicate plays a huge role in changing our behaviour and thought process. Let’s take the elements one by one.

The bloated self-esteem phenomena

We all want to look strong in front of others and that’s typically how we have all evolved, in fact that is in our genetic makeup. Can we change this? The first answer is a big ‘NO’ but can we as a species adapt; to this the answer would be typically ‘YES’. Today, we see a plethora of messages through various media but to change something that has taken several thousand years to ingrain is not something easy, however not impossible too.

The macho-man feeling can be managed by the very genesis of its evolution in our genes. This feeling evolved from a sense of power and can be moulded to a sense of responsibility. Persuasion through showing responsibility towards family and friends is one big strategic communication move that can bring change in behaviour. Say for e.g. rather than instructing about wearing masks, maintaining social distance and getting vaccinated in a 30-second voice over, why can’t the same thing be communicated in a slightly different manner:

“Today, when you move out of your house, you have a responsibility to fulfil, a responsibility to ensure that when you return back, you bring back smiles and not an infection at home. Protecting your near and dear ones is your prime responsibility and for that wearing a mask and maintaining social distancing should be your focus.”

Influencers need to walk the talk

The second element about influencers, I believe they should at first be united and portray a consolidated effort towards making people feel responsible and ensuring that they walk the talk. The ‘Chalta Hai’ attitude which we Indians are used to, should take a back seat and behaviour change should start from the top. Though seemingly difficult and some would say nearing impossibility, a ‘United India’ message by showing all leaders, irrespective of ideology, to join hands and show unity in the fight against Covid-19 would go a million miles in having the weight and impact of the message, a message that would unite us all not only by words but by action too.

Fear factor should be replaced by compassion

The third element about the fear factor, I think that love, compassion and responsibility can move mountains. We are in a stage of the pandemic where one another wave may just shake away our belief in ourselves and all those whom we believe are accountable to protecting and guiding us. Influencers, micro or macro, should come out and do what they are best at and this should start from the top. We need to shed our differences and guide our people in a manner which not only makes them realize their mistakes but the comprehensiveness of the message and the universality of it should motivate us, strong enough and for a duration enough, that we win the race against Covid-19, a marathon race that can be won together and only together and self-restraint is the only way.

This is something which we all have but in these times it is important to shed our earlier misbeliefs and show self-restraint in terms of adhering to Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.