This week, I watched two older women nearly get into a fist fight over canned corn and I found myself on the brink of tears of joy and gratitude when a client gifted me a pack of toilet paper. If someone had told me that this was going to be my reality at the beginning of this month, I’d have told them to lay off the wacky-tobaccy before gazing into their crystal ball.

Yet here we are, as individuals and as a collective consciousness, trekking into uncharted territory.

Isn’t that life though? We get stuck in our comfort zones and when something threatens our routine, our way of life or our habits, we panic. That is exactly what is happening now, just on a global scale. People are panicking because they don’t know what to expect.

The truth is, our safety and security is always being threatened in some way. Every six seconds, someone dies from a smoking related diseased. Every twelve minutes, someone takes their own life. Every 37 seconds, someone dies from heart disease. Every year, 12,000-30,000 people die from the regular flu. Disease, be it viral or otherwise, is rampant whether the news is reporting it or not.

We panic because we feel ourselves losing control over the lives we have meticulously planned out when something happens that we don’t understand.

But, there are two things that we can control to some degree right now that are far more effective and reasonable responses than shanking each other over canned goods. Our anxiety and our immunity.