A close friend of mine in Milan passed away when the city was in COVID-19 lockdown. He died of an issue not related to the Coronavirus. David was one of the smartest and greatest guys I’ve met and his wife had to cope by herself in that crazy closed city, which meant her beloved husband didn’t have a proper farewell.

She faced a tragic personal crisis within a global pandemic crisis and her friends and family couldn’t come to her rescue. This virus not only infects humanity’s health but imbeds negativity that needs to be addressed and hopefully exterminated like the virus itself.

A Federal Government politician confessed to me that he was worried about the psychological effects of the Coronavirus, which I’m sure many Victorians are being unnerved by following the return to stage 3 restrictions.

As an economist I worry about the impact of this decision on consumer confidence, the job losses, bankruptcies and the economic rebound that was looking good until those risk-taking security guards in quarantine hotels decided to get more ‘on the job’ than they were paid to do! But as a business owner, employer and family leader, I worry about what the Coronavirus confidence effects are having in a cumulative way.

And I was staggered when I read and thought about something that our resident cardiologist, Dr Ross Walker, has been lecturing us about for years.

The good doctor has often argued that stress can lead to a heart attack so it got me thinking about how we get too preoccupied with the negative and often ignore the positives in our lives.

A friend of mine was ‘lectured’ by her son when she was worried about a relative who was giving her an emotional bad time. The younger wiser offspring asked why she was so focused on the one negatively-inclined person in her life when there were so many positively-inclined and supportive loved ones.

It’s a good question we need to ask ourselves on a regular basis. And it reminds me of my great former radio legend colleague — Doug Mulray — who once confessed he didn’t like live gigs because he was inclined to worry about the one person who looked like he wasn’t on board with his humour, despite the fact that 99.9% were!

Here was a guy who was number one on Sydney radio for years with a huge audience but the one dissenter unnerved him face-to-face. Clearly, he could cope with criticism because his show was riotously funny and at times very controversial but the odd face-to-face critic was an issue for him.

I must confess when I started on the speaking circuit, the odd person who walked out worried me a bit too, until an old stager on the speaking circuit pointed out that a lot of leavers were smokers and those with unreliable bladders.

That insight taught me that you have to deal with negatives and work out whether they’re really important or not.

But many are worried about this damn virus (for good reason). But are we giving it too much negative recognition for our own good? “Prolonged bouts of anger can take the toll on the body in the form of high blood pressure, stress, anxiety, headaches and poor circulation,” writes US cardiologist, Dr Cynthia Thaik, in Huffington Post. “Research also shows that even one five-minute episode of anger is so stressful that it can impair your immune system for more than six hours. All of these health issues can lead to more serious problems, such as heart attacks and stroke.”

OK, so Ross and Cynthia are on the same page, giving us good advice that our hearts are at risk if we get too stressed about important things like the Coronavirus, bad friends or relatives or how crappy our footie team is! Fortunately, the Sydney Roosters are doing the right thing for my ‘jam tart’ but I do worry about other footie fans who take their game and teams too seriously. And it’s especially worrying when you realise that God has played a nasty trick on us all by hotwiring us for negativity and therefore heart attacks! And if you want to blame Him or Her for the Coronavirus and not Xi Jinping, then God has a lot to answer for! It seems wise if we go looking for some sensible ways to dodge a heart attack.

Yep, you would’ve thought the divine-maker might have had us inclined towards the positive but psychologists think we’re negative types.

Kerry Chendra writing in verywellmind.com explained what is called our Negative Bias. And she got me in with this: “Have you ever found yourself dwelling on an insult or fixating on your mistakes? Criticisms often have a greater impact than compliments, and bad news frequently draws more attention than good. The reason for this is that negative events have a greater impact on our brains than positive ones. Psychologists refer to this as the negative bias (also called the negativity bias), and it can have a powerful effect on your behaviour, your decisions, and even your relationships.”

Research says we’re more likely to make important decisions based on negative information rather than positive stuff.

In 1984 in American Psychologist, Nobel Prize-winning researchers D. Kahneman and A. Tversky showed that when making decisions, people consistently place greater weight on negative aspects of an event than they do on positive ones.

I hate to be too simplistic but being negative is really negative for your health and happiness and it has to affect your productivity and success.

So what do the experts suggest you use to beat this God-given deathly predisposition, which is made especially worse as the Coronavirus continues to hover? Try this:

• Abandon negative self-talk by reflecting on past mistakes that have taught valuable lessons.
• Try to reframe the negative issue into a more positive light. For example, I suggested in March when our national lockdown began, that you use the time to read the stuff you never have time for that could make you better at work or in your business or in your social life.
• Embrace new reactions/patterns to negative thoughts. Imagine if you promised to do 20 push-ups when you held a negative, going-nowhere thought for too long and just think how strong you’d get?
• Make a big deal out of positive events in your life. Call people, reward yourself and share the happiness!

Given how threatening negativity is, I recommend that you actually make a big commitment to kill unhelpful, going-nowhere negativity, which only leads to you stewing on the issue rather than fixing it or fixing you!

Dr Thaik says there are some smart steps to kill anger and hatred, which ultimately is born out of negativity, and can end in a deathly heart attack. Here’s what she recommends:

1. Acknowledge your anger. 
2. Realise why you are angry or feeling hateful. 
3. Step back for a moment, take some deep breaths and try to let it go to get calm.
4. Deal with the issue and find a solution. 
5. Talk to people about what's on your mind. 
6. Let go of unhealthy thought patterns. 

And Cynthia gives us some good advice: “If you find yourself always thinking the worst about others and/or yourself, try to retrain your mind to think more positively. If you can let negative thought patterns go and start to appreciate the good in life, you will find that you have less to be angry about, better health and a happier disposition.”

A lot of people and families have really had to face some real problems in their lives because of the Coronavirus. If this terrible virus teaches us anything, it should be that we really can be unnecessarily negative about trivial issues.