“Bad times have a scientific value. These are occasions a good learner would not miss.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
A lot of analyses and forecasts have been done on the lingering Covid-19 infection. It is this young century’s most impactful global public health issue. While expert opinions and other scientific researches have been shared, everything seems to be on scientific assessment. It is subject to empirical process requiring a long period of monitored studies/researches. Meantime, life must go on.
A significant consequence of the pandemic is on the person’s mental health. On January 13, the Social Involvement Committee of the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (Finex) Foundation sponsored a timely webinar on the topic of Understanding Happiness and Suffering with Dr. Antonio T. Fernando as a resource person. Dr. Fernando is a visiting psychiatrist, academic and former monk based in Auckland, New Zealand.
His talk was very engaging that led those who attended to discern. Among the nuggets of thoughts he shared are what he called “The Five Remembrances”:
1. I am subject to aging. There is no way to avoid aging.
2. I am subject to ill health. There is no way to avoid illness.
3. I am subject to death. There is no way to avoid death.
4. Everyone and everything that I love will change and I will be separated from them.
5. My only true possessions are my actions and I cannot escape their consequences.
Dr. Fernando also expounded on “The Eight Worldly Winds:” pleasure and pain; gain and loss; fame and shame; and, praise and blame.
Some 400 attended the webinar via zoom and accessed through the Finex’s Facebook page as of the end of the session’s “Questions & Answers” portion. May I quote noteworthy remarks expressed on the webinar:
1. I enjoyed the program and learned a lot (I did not know I am not a happy person until I joined the webinar).
2. If you knew that you are not happy, just remember what Dr. Fernando told us; that everybody is suffering.
In the end of Dr. Fernando’s talk, he quoted Viktor E. Frankl:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s way.”
Let us choose to be happy!
Conchita L. Manabat is the President of the Development Center for Finance. A past President of Finex and past chairman of the International Association of Financial Executives Institutes (Iafei), she serves as the chairman of the Iafei Advisory Council. She is a member of the Consultative Advisory Groups of the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants.