Off Topic - For Those Dealing With Stress and Anxiety Due to the Coronavirus Crisis

This post is completely different than anything I have ever posted on this blog and something I never imagined I would even consider doing here. But we are now in the midst of a historic situation. Fear and anxiety over the challenges that exist for all of us now is at a very high level and with good reason. The goal of this blog has  always been to try and provide a free resource of information in an effort to be helpful to anyone that finds the information and may be able to benefit from it in any way. The subject matter has always centered around the stability of our present financial and monetary system because I felt like I have come across a lot of potentially useful information over the years and wanted to make it available to anyone who might be able to use it. I purposely avoid any kind of political or religious agenda here because I know those topics can be so divisive and could make it harder to achieve the objective here which is to try and be of service. 

With all that background, I will explain that my initial motivation to do this blog and to keep it alive over the years came about from a challenge from my church. We were encouraged to try and think of some way to serve other people and this has been my attempt to do that to the best of my ability. Now we are all facing something no one imagined just a few months ago and it is obvious that many people are facing a lot of stress and anxiety, which is only normal for a crisis like this. As a result,  I have decided to post below a video that I hope might be helpful or useful to some in these times. This is actually a podcast featuring words of encouragement from the pulpit minister from our church (Jason Reeves), our Family Life minister (Dr. Ryan Smith), and one of the elders at our congregation (Dr. Ken Ford). Some of the message content in this video is mostly directed to our church members, but it also contains some general information on the virus, as well as some thoughts on ways to help deal with the potential stress that goes with it. Ryan specializes in therapy for people dealing with all kinds of stress and anxiety. Ken provides some good information on the virus and why we need to all work together to fight it. I know without any question I can rely on the integrity of these men and what they have to say which is why I am willing to post it here.

For those who are not religious, please do not be offended. This is not intended to as some kind of sermon or attempt to force religion on you. I know these three men and I know they have nothing but servants' hearts combined with a deep desire to help others whenever they can. That is the only purpose for the information and message in this video. 

With all that said, below is the youtube video podcast for anyone interested. If you have any questions about the information presented, please feel free to email me and I will try to clarify if anything they say is confusing or hard to hear. The first three minutes are more directed towards our internal members, so feel free to skip over that if you like. Also, at about the 23 minute mark the video portion freezes up, but the audio portion still works fine. 

I hope this can be helpful to some who are understandably dealing with anxiety and stress at this time.  I am sure all of us are dealing with that on some level so you are not alone.

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Summary of the Info in the Video

- Dallas Medical Doctor Ken Ford goes over some information on the virus, the concerns of health providers, and why we do need to take it seriously and each do our part to try to help contain it

- Dr. Ryan Smith (expert on therapies for dealing with stress and anxiety) offers some practical ideas on how individuals and families can deal with having their lives turned upside down and the anxiety and stress that can come with that

-all three participants in the video encourage people of faith to stay calm and look for ways to grow from this adversity and for ways to help others if possible


Important News note (3-23-2020): Fed Announces "Asset Purchases with No Limits". This is a huge step by the Fed in an obvious attempt to support the stock market and other markets.