[Evergreen Bergvliet] ELV BGV>Circular 21 - Garry Read Message - Learned Optimism

Sun Apr 12 14:43:48 SAST 2020

        Dear Evergreen Residents

“TOUGH TIMES DON’T LAST, TOUGH PEOPLE DO” – Dr. Robert Schuller

During this time of lockdown, I have been thinking about some great South African’s that have achieved against the odds – You might have heard of Noordhoek local and personal friend of mine, Chris Bertish. In a 93-day trek, Bertish successfully completed a solo, unassisted and unaided crossing of the Atlantic Ocean on a stand-up paddleboard, going from Morocco to Antigua. He only had 8 square meters of space to move in during this time, that’s the equivalent a guest toilet in our homes. Should you want to read more about this world record achievement you can find him at http://www.chrisbertish.com

Each and every one of our residents are amongst those great South African’s, you have endured two tough weeks of being isolated to your home and although it hasn’t been easy, you achieved this against the odds. THANK YOU for your commitment and understanding during these extremely difficult times. The Village Management team, Healthcare team and I remain at your service 24/7. I can imagine mixed feelings circulating right now regarding the further extension of the lockdown.  My first thought was “how do we maintain hope in the face of this adversity”.  Right now, we need an optimistic mindset and I think three phrases that we need to repeat to ourselves are:

>From Martin Seligman’s “Learned Optimism”
“This will not last forever”- easy to forget when you in the middle of the crisis but the reality is - it won’t.
“This is not changing everything”- this is probably the most difficult to accept at the moment because it is changing a lot of people’s lives, but it is not ruining everything.
“My efforts will make a difference” - you are still in charge of your feelings and emotions and in the driver’s seat of the same.  Your efforts will make a difference.

Like anything we have to learn to be optimistic - it is not just simply hoping for the best - we need to consciously practice an optimistic mindset.  This means framing adversity in a healthy, realistic way and taking ownership of finding solutions.  This is exactly what we need right now.  By thinking with these three phrases through this lens we will get the fuel we need to cross this rather large, and now even larger river!

We struggle so often not to let adversity affect us in a negative way and so often when we are faced with challenges and adversity our world narrows and we tend to focus on what is negative BUT what if we change our thinking to be optimistic - for example when we are able to engage with people,

Evergreen Volunteers calling our single and vulnerable residents every 48 hours, knowing that we can find a path forward, even though we are not sure what it is. We are helping others to be able to look ahead and explore opportunities to find solutions.  It also gives us more energy to look forward. The most important thing to remember in this time is that your effort count - repeat this as a mantra, it will help.

COVID-19
This week the village managers would have distributed communications to you that we received from a competitor village of ours in Gauteng reporting their first confirmed case of COVID -19. Although we keep the residents, family, staff, and nurses having to deal with the resident in our thoughts and prayers, there is a very clear indication that there was no adherence to strict lockdown procedures, residents were still walking around in the village, still going out of the for non-essential shopping items and visitors allowed. Across the Evergreen Lifestyle portfolio, we have strictly implemented our lockdown controls to which I have no doubt we have and will continue to see success.

You might have done the math like I have and noticed that the average age at passing of all South African related deaths is 74, the average age of our residents in Evergreen Lifestyle Villages is 75. The message remains unchanged – Stay indoors and stay safe. There is no reason for any resident to leave any of our villages for non-essential reasons, our team of support staff can assist you with shopping, electricity purchases and medication.

ONLINE SHOPPING AND DELIVERIES
Do you know that we have a dedicated driver allocated to each Evergreen Lifestyle Village, these drivers are our head office staff that are volunteering to collect food orders and last-minute medication, etc. Over the past two weeks, these drivers have collectively driven over 1000km to service your needs, they have transported 850 shopping bags to date. THANK YOU to all our drivers, you are all superstars.

In closing I remind you of the words that our President so gallantly used in closing his address this week

“The message of Easter is one we carry in our hearts tonight.
It is the message of hope, of recovery and of rebirth.
We shall recover.
We shall overcome.
May God bless South Africa and protect her people”

I wish you all happiness, good health and blessings over this time, regardless of your religious beliefs, we are always stronger together.

Regards
Garry Reed

PS – I believe the Easter bunny has been classified as an essential service – so if he hasn’t been around your village, I am sure he is still on the way

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