Dr. Amit Sood is a former internal medicine physician at Mayo Clinic. He was director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and was chair of the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative at Mayo Clinic.

He also contributed to the weekly "Something to Think About" posts on the Mayo Clinic News Network. Dr. Sood has graciously offered to share his reflections and encouraging thoughts during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Imagine it is spring 2025

Tucked in your blanket, trying to sleep at night, your mind travels back five years.

You remember the fear — fearing doorknobs, grocery bags, light switches, sneezes, handshakes and hugs.

You remember the sadness — the loss of freedom, time with colleagues, birthday parties, sleepovers, visits to the mall.

You remember the anger — anger at human greed, irrationality, willful ignorance.

You remember the grief — sobbing at the loss of fellow beings who breathed their last breath alone in an ICU to the sound of a ventilator.

But it's not all negative.

You remember the love — sticking hearts on the windows, spending quality time with loved ones.

You remember the kindness — making small sacrifices, giving an extra tip, supporting those struggling.

You remember the gratitude — grateful for the gift of food, deep breath, and togetherness.

You remember the meaning – coming closer as a family, choosing to forgive, working on personal wellbeing.

Coming back to today

COVID-19 is one of the worst threats our world has seen. It has disrupted our lives, finances, freedom, relationships and a sense of security. It has brought loneliness, furloughs and job losses. No one knows when this will end. Are we looking at a second wave, a third wave, a fourth wave? How can you calm your mind, let alone feel upbeat?

Here are three thoughts shared as three steps.

• The first step: Acknowledge that COVID-19 has created a heavier load than your mind can lift. Accept that the feelings of fear, sadness, anger and grief are natural. The negative feelings are part of the mental potpourri. No need to stifle them. When you accept these feelings, they loosen their grip. They free your attention to embrace the present moment.
• The second step: Spend more time in the present moment with your attention tethered to your senses — flowing with your breath, watching the sunset colors, smelling the aroma of coffee, feeling your feet on the floor, admiring your loved one's eyes and more. Externally focused attention frees your mind from its fatiguing wanderings.
• The third step: The present moment opens the door to a well of comfort and positivity, experiencing compassion, gratitude, love, and meaning. You think about those who have it worse. You feel grateful for the ordinary and simple. You prioritize affiliative moments. You think about the larger meaning of your life.

Once your brain fills with these uplifting feelings, fear and anger slowly fade. They are still there, but no longer dominate your thought flow. 

With repeated practice, the feelings you nurture start multiplying. Thus, the more you focus on compassion, gratitude and meaning, the bigger space they occupy in your brain's real estate. 

Acknowledge your fear and convert it into proactive actions that help you secure safety. Once you have done that, embrace the splendor of the present and fill it with uplifting thoughts and perceptions.

On a peaceful night in spring 2025, tucked in your blanket, when you will think about this day in 2020, you might remember the fear and sadness, but I hope you will quickly move to love and kindness. You will turn on your side, smile and lose yourself into the world of your dreams.

Amit Sood, M.D.

Follow @AmitSoodMD on Twitter and visit his blogpost resilientoption.com

Information in this post was accurate at the time of its posting. Due to the fluid nature of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific understanding along with guidelines and recommendations may have changed since the original publication date. 

Check the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website for additional updates on COVID-19. For more information and all your COVID-19 coverage, go to the Mayo Clinic News Network and mayoclinic.org.

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"It does take time," says Dr. Amit Sood, author of The Mayo Clinic Guide to Stress-free Living. "But the brain can be trained both to accelerate and slow down."

Dr. Sood says it's an important skill that can improve your well-being and the quality of your work.

In this Mayo Clinic Radio Health Minute, Dr. Sood suggests a simple exercise designed to help you quiet your mind.

To listen, click the link below.

Find one new detail

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"Wherever you are right now, consider yourself a source of energy. What is the nature of the energy you are giving out, right at this moment? Are you mostly lost in thought and not giving much? Are you processing irritation, anger, and hurt? Or are you making an active effort to radiate loving energy, with kind and well-meaning thoughts, words, and actions? The energy you emanate starts a chain reaction. You get to choose the kind of reaction you start." -Dr. Amit Sood

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While staring intently at our phones during a recent meeting break, we noticed a reassuring comment from Mayo resiliency expert Amit Sood, M.D. It seems "only about 6 percent" of us are "officially" addicted to our various screens, he tells the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Still, a recent study found that teenagers are spending an average of nine hours a day with their eyes glued to screens, "and that's outside of school," the paper reports. To no great surprise, their mental health and social skills are paying the price. "Attention is a zero-sum game," Dr. Sood tells the P-B. "If they're attending to the technology, they're not paying attention to the person in front of them."

So what's are a parent to do, especially during the school year when our life becomes increasingly busy (and the weather outside eventually becomes frightful — at least in certain northerly climes). Dr. Sood says it comes down to setting and sticking to a few simple screen time guidelines that, to work, must apply to the whole family. "Don't worry that they're not listening to you — worry that they're watching you," Dr. Sood tells the paper, noting that for parents to get their family off to a good start, they can start by modeling good screen behavior themselves. Read the rest of this article on In the Loop.
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This story originally appeared on the In the Loop blog.

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Dr. Amit Sood says, "With respect to honesty, people come in four different flavors."

Dear friend,

Honesty means speaking and living by the truth. With respect to honesty, people come in four different flavors. Some are habitually dishonest. Others choose to be honest as long as it serves their purpose. Still others are, barring extreme situations, committed to honesty, no matter whether it hurts or harms them. The fourth type of honesty is dumb or cruel honesty. If you know that your honesty is likely to start World War III or cause suffering for millions, then it might be best to keep your mouth shut.

The world is tired of habitual dishonesty. It doesn’t need dumb or cruel honesty either. Fortunately, both of these are rare. Most of us fit into the second or the third pattern, where we are honest as long as it serves our purpose or remain committed to honesty barring extreme situations.

Quite often, we shift between the second and third types depending on life’s happenings and the influence of role models. Consider yourself lucky today if you aren’t forced into dishonest thoughts, words, or actions. For example, imagine your child is crying from intense hunger and you can only get food by lying to someone. What would you do? Most likely you’d lie, wouldn’t you? I certainly would.

I have judged others for their dishonesty, not knowing their constraints. I shouldn’t judge that way. I should recognize that I can be honest today only because I am not challenged so. If I were placed in their precarious situation, I would likely slip. The intention, however, varies, and beyond a limit, it gets subjective. In the above example, if my two kids were crying from hunger and I hoarded food for twenty children just to be safe, despite knowing that the supplies were limited, then I am being dishonest.

Every twenty-four-karat-gold ornament is impure, because pure gold is too soft to become an ornament. So are we. The worthwhile impurity within us is that of altruistic dishonesty. When you are willing to let go of personal salvation for the larger good by not speaking a brutally honest and harmful truth, you are doing the righteous thing. Dishonesty, however, needs very careful judgment and utter selflessness.

Every day my circumstances do not force me to be dishonest is a day to be deeply grateful. I should not judge others if I find them dishonest until I know the details of what prompted them to act. I should also not gloat about my honesty. My honesty is a privilege, and I am deeply grateful for it.

May you never run into a situation where you are forced to be dishonest; may you not prematurely judge those you find dishonest.

Take care.
Amit

Follow @AmitSoodMD on Twitter.Dr. Sood is director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program on Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus in Minnesota. He also chairs the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative at Mayo Clinic.

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Dr. Amit Sood says, "The unpleasant truth is infinitely more precious than pleasant farce."

Dear friend,
We live in an epidemic of lying. Research shows that about 60 percent of adults lie at least once in a ten-minute conversation. About 40 percent lie on their resumes, and 90 percent lie on their online dating profiles.

Lies come in various types. Some of the well-known types include cover-up, exaggeration, fabrication, fraud, omission, half-truth, and perjury. Lies conveyed to exaggerate one’s credentials or get attention often reflect narcissistic disposition. Despite the bad press lies get, most lies are benign, particularly the ones spoken to avoid conflicts or prevent someone from getting physically or emotionally hurt. A lie spoken to avoid major discord and maintain law and order is often called a “noble lie.”

Truth should always be the desired option. Truth, however, can taste bitter. When someone tells me, “Do you really want to hear the truth?” or “Let me tell you the truth,” I often cringe. I cringe because here comes the deluge of bad news or negative feedback. I don’t look at hearing the undesirable as, “Aha! Here is the opportunity to learn and grow.”

Speaking the truth makes you vulnerable. Truth tellers are often seen as adversaries or tough nuts. My mind would rather hear the pleasant. Pleasantness is sweet to the ears. But sweetness isn’t always healthy.

If I wish to hear the truth, I shouldn’t trash the truth teller. I shouldn’t tell others what I want to hear. I should open my arms to the truth and actively seek it. I should also integrate the truth into my life.

Choosing not to hear the truth isn’t just a matter of preference. Ignorance can hurt a lot of people, particularly if you are in a position of power. Ignorance is also a poor escape from accountability. (Intentionally choosing not to learn about details that matter has a legal name—“willful blindness.”) Many corporate leaders who drove their companies into the ground tried to use ignorance as their shield. But this was a cracked shield. They were rightly convicted of corporate fraud.

If I wish to grow, I need at least a few people who can tell me the facts as they are. I will only have such people around me if I am humble in receiving the reality as is. I should appreciate and adore the truth tellers, actively seek the truth, and correct my mistaken beliefs and actions. That is my only hope to be of greater value to the world.

May you have the courage to speak, listen to, and accept the truth; may you be surrounded by people who seek to listen to and speak the truth.

Take care.
Amit

Follow @AmitSoodMD on Twitter.

Dr. Sood is director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program on Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus in Minnesota. He also chairs the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative at Mayo Clinic.

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Dr. Amit Sood says, "Research shows laughter provides a good physical workout, generates mental relaxation, lowers blood pressure and pain, and even improves immunity. You’re 30 times more likely to laugh in good company than alone. Further, the more you laugh with others rather than at someone, the greater the health benefit."

Dear friend,

Laughter evolved to defuse tension, improve social connection, and create bonding. When we laugh with others, we send the message, “I like you, and I am willing to play with you.” Hearts that laugh together, beat together.

Research shows laughter provides a good physical workout, generates mental relaxation, lowers blood pressure and pain, and even improves immunity. You’re thirty times more likely to laugh in good company than alone. Further, the more you laugh with others rather than at someone, the greater the health benefit.

I like to laugh with others. I am embarrassed to accept that I have also sometimes laughed at others. I have noticed irrationality and silly mistakes in others and have laughed at those. Yet I don’t like anyone laughing at me.

I have a choice. I could be stiff and defensive. I could thwart any attempt of others to laugh at me. Or I could learn to laugh at myself. I believe the latter is a healthier option.

When I laugh at myself, I get the same kick that I do when laughing at others. I am entertained without being unkind. It keeps me humble. It improves my relationships.

Laughing at myself thus is a true win-win situation. It expresses humility. I should learn to laugh at myself more often.

I should also make it a habit to laugh with and not laugh at. If I surround myself with kind, well-meaning people whom I love and trust, I will laugh more, and laugh more healthfully. In order to do that, I should become a person whom people love, trust, and feel safe to laugh with.

May love and laughter fill each corner of your home, today and forever.

Take care.
Amit

Read Dr. Sood's blog posts and follow @AmitSoodMD on Twitter.Dr. Sood is director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program on Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus in Minnesota. He also chairs the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative at Mayo Clinic.

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Dr. Amit Sood, a Mayo Clinic internal medicine specialist, says the health benefits of pets are greater than most people realize.

Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (0:59) is in the downloads. Read the script.

"So pets are wonderful for your heart, for your immune system, even for your longevity," Dr. Sood says. "Pets help decrease your loneliness, and they help your self-worth. I mean, how could you feel lonely and unworthy if you have a 10-pound fur ball of pure love jumping 3 feet to just greet you and tell you [that] you are the most important person on the planet?"

Research has shown people who have pets generally live longer.

Dr. Sood has been interested in the positive effects pets can have on a person's physical and emotional well-being for years. He says not only do pets make people happier, but also people who strive to live life more like their pets often find greater happiness.

"They are a role model of forgiveness, and they are [a] role model of low expectation," he says. "You just give them a warm room, a full stomach and someone to play with, and they are happy. And you may leave them at home alone or take them to the vet, but, when you come back, they forgive you right away. So pets tell us what is the simple and beautiful aspects of life. They are the happiest people on the planet. Follow them."

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Dr. Amit Sood says, "May you feel strong and brave because of the values you protect."

The subtle is stronger than the gross. The visible forces of nature (tides, hurricanes and volcanoes) are dwarfed by the subtle, invisible powers of nature (gravity, nuclear forces and magnetism).

The visible forces of the mind (hatred, envy, revenge and anger) are extremely weak in front of the quiet but infinitely stronger powers (gratitude, compassion, acceptance and forgiveness).

Your greatest strength lies in harnessing and aligning with the stronger forces. While in the very short term, revenge may seem stronger, in the long term, it is forgiveness that will give you greater strength. Uncontrolled anger may look like pure adrenaline, but it is compassion that unlocks the greatest energy. Often, I can’t see this because my vision is foggy, my longevity short and my wisdom limited.

You will face setbacks on the righteous path and will need constancy of effort powered by courage. Courage doesn’t decimate fear; courage acts despite the fear. The courage that David showed against Goliath and the Cowardly Lion against the Wicked Witch of the West (in "The Wizard of Oz") has sound scientific underpinning. Research shows fear is hosted by almond-shaped nuclei in the brain called the amygdala. Courage activates the brain’s anterior cingulate cortex, which mentors and quiets the amygdala activity. Complete lack of fear isn’t desirable, as any parent of a 2-year-old can tell you. Total fearlessness is actually pathological; it risks putting you in harm’s way. Further, we find the greatest joy and growth in overcoming fears, not in not having fears.

How does one find such courage? I have talked to thousands of folks about courageous people in their personal lives, asking them what they thought provided the courage. Three themes have emerged. Courageous people are often other-centric, finding great meaning in helping their fellow beings; they have good role models whose principles they imbibe; and many find great courage from their faith. A combination of these paths helps such people lead lives driven by passion and meaning rather than fear. These three themes are connected by the single principle that most people with an abundance of courage live by higher values. The values they protect power their courage.

The values of compassion and forgiveness, higher meaning and selflessness, patience and contentment, are timeless and powerful. They provide strength to anyone who lives to protect them. These values can’t be destroyed. If you become their temporary custodian, you become indestructible in the process.

Take care.
Amit

Follow @AmitSoodMD on Twitter and visit Resilient Living.Dr. Sood is director of research in the Complementary and Integrative Medicine Program on Mayo Clinic's Rochester campus in Minnesota. He also chairs the Mind-Body Medicine Initiative at Mayo Clinic.

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Watch: The Mayo Clinic Minute

Journalists: Broadcast-quality video pkg (1:00) is in the downloads. Read the script.

"H = R-E, or happiness equals reality minus expectations," Dr. Sood says.

Dr. Sood has spent his career researching the keys to happiness and says it can be much simpler than some people make it. A lot of it, he says, comes down to focusing on the things you can control.

"You cannot always change reality, but you can always work with expectation," he says. "And the more your expectations are reasonable, perhaps a little lower, the happier you will be."

Along with managing your expectations, Dr. Sood says happiness also can be maximized by putting equal effort into caring for yourself and others.

"If I have four pieces of chocolate, I can give you all four. It'll make you happy; it'll make me miserable," Dr. Sood says. I can eat all four. It'll make me happy, and it'll make you miserable. I think true happiness is in eating two chocolates yourself and giving away two. So you are nurturing yourself, and you are nurturing others. It is in this synergy, in this combination that you will find the greatest happiness."

So if you need more happiness in your life, just remember two simple formulas: two for me plus two for you equals happiness, and happiness = R-E, or reality minus expectations.

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