2020 AKA The Worst Year Ever… Or is it?

“Oh my f*****g God, this is the worst year ever!”

You’ve probably lost track of how many times you’ve heard a friend or family member utter these words. Considering the pandemic, which has been going on for 6+ months now, and various other developments in people’s personal lives, people seem more convinced that 2020 is indeed the worst year ever.

Historically speaking, that’s not true.

The literal ‘worst year ever' so far has been 536 AD. According to historian Michael McCormick, 536 was the 'beginning of one of the worst periods to be alive’.

A massive volcanic eruption in Iceland cast a layer of smog all over the northern hemisphere, leading to darkness in Europe, Middle East, and parts of Asia that lasted for 24 hours a day for 18 months — the Dark Ages. This led to a catastrophe, including, but not limited to, extreme cold (summer snow in China), famine, and economic destruction. All this intensified further when the Bubonic Plague struck the Roman Empire a few years later.

On a macroscopic level, that sucks. So does living in the time of Coronavirus. Maybe not as much, though. Imagine the state of mind of anyone alive in 536 AD.

Humans have an inherent bias when it comes to observing, remembering, and recollecting negative events. The ‘negativity bias’ essentially refers to our ability to use negative information far more than positive information. Various studies have found more intense activity in certain parts of the brain in response to negative stimuli as compared to positive stimuli.

It is an adaptive evolutionary function, crucial for the survival of our ancestors who lived in the wild and hunted for food. It ensured that the brain identified and acted upon any imminent threat to life. However, given the avalanche of information available today, this bias works more against us than for us.

Prolonged exposure to content from social media, television, newspapers, etc. affects our cognition and state of mind. Given that the content on each of these platforms now predominantly revolves around world news, the inflow of this negative content reinforces the negativity bias. This reinforcement deters the brain from paying attention to positive information and events, and before we know it, we’re stuck in a vicious negative loop, wherein everything around us constantly seems to be going wrong.

When was the last time you read/heard some good news?

A study by Soroka, Fournier and Nir found that while there is a demand for positive coverage, news readers primarily focus their attention on negative coverage. The prevalence of negative news might be a consequence of the existing demand for it.

When I say this, I don’t mean to undermine anyone’s struggle through this period.

Now I’m not saying everything’s great on my end. I’m looking for work, while my plans to get done with the GMAT have been indefinitely held up due to an unanticipated technical glitch during my scheduled test. I write this as I hope and pray that my 85-year-old grandfather’s surgery scheduled for tomorrow morning goes through smoothly. This is one day after receiving news that our family’s neighbours have been diagnosed with Covid-19 and have to self isolate and more. Yeah, it’s no party.

All of this isn’t in anyone’s control. The least and the most we can do is hope for the best, and make the most of what we have while we’re at it. We might not be vacationing in Europe this summer or bar hopping around town this weekend, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have the ‘good life’ to look forward to on a day to day basis.

One thing is for certain, we aren’t going back to normal. We’re progressing to a new normal. And what that entails is for us to find out with each new day.

You don’t want to look back at this time and only have a collection of bad memories! Take five minutes to reflect on the last 3 months, and think about 3 things that have worked out well for you. It might be something as simple as being able to work from home for an extended period (imagine not having to take the train to work in the heat, rain, and winter!), or that you FINALLY learned to cook your favourite meal, or start that blog, or that you now have the time to adopt that cute puppy and care for it!

Now do this every day. Take 10 minutes out of your 24 hours to think about the small things that went right each day. You’ll be surprised!

I was also recently reminded of the Bullet Journal and will be diving into it to keep a check on my goals and have more mindful days. You might want to collaborate with a friend so you can help each other be more accountable! Check it out here.