- The importance of emotional resilience amidst the economic crisis
Sri Lanka is currently facing its worst financial and humanitarian crises since independence. According to a study published by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), domestic expenditure exceeding the national income has contributed to the crisis, leaving the country prone to external debt.
Further, the reliance on foreign currency flows has ultimately resulted in a default on the repayments of all foreign debt. The tragic Easter Sunday attack and the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed the tourism industry for almost three years. The war between Russia and Ukraine, two countries which are major contributors to tourism in Sri Lanka, has also affected the loss of foreign income. The introduction of fertiliser bans by the Government, which affected the production of rice and tea – two of the country’s main exports – further worsened the situation. In this context, poor financial management has been claimed as the main reason behind the economic downfall of Sri Lanka.
The economic crisis invariably has given rise to a humanitarian crisis fueling public unrest, demanding systemic change and permanent solutions to the current crisis. This situation has created enormous suffering at the individual, family, and community levels. Lack of fuel, soaring prices of essential goods, and shortage of medical supplies are evidence of the widespread suffering going on in Sri Lanka.
In this context, emotional resilience in individuals, families, and communities plays a vital role when living amidst a crisis. Community resilience practitioner Dr. Novil Wijesekara has examined the possible pathways that emotional response to the current economic crisis could take and has proposed a favourable alternative that individuals, families, and communities should adapt.
This article contains excerpts from the paper published by Dr. Wijesekara in the International Journal of Community Resilience in this regard.
Flight-or-fight response
The fight-or-flight response, or the stress response, has been used to describe the physiological reaction that an individual’s body experiences when faced with a stressor. It is triggered by the release of hormones either promoting us to fight or runaway. According to this physiology, during the current economic crisis, these two natural emotional responses, “flight” or “fight”, could be triggered. In his paper, Dr. Wijesekara has extrapolated this concept to include the family and community level in addition to the individual, and has presented it schematically.
The flight response during the crisis situation is directed to the left of the diagram. This pathway could lead to sadness, hopelessness, and helplessness, calling for flight, or to run away from the situation. The ultimate result of this response would be withdrawal from social and political life with a sense of apathy and nihilism. In this pathway, the individuals get isolated from the community and the vicious cycle of suffering occurs in the long run.
The fight response for the crisis is depicted on the right side of the diagram. This emotional response would lead to fear, mistrust, and anger. These emotions may lead to a fight reaction that could result in violence. This response also aggravates the suffering through positive feedback in the long run.
Both the fight and flight responses may perceive some temporary relief at its onset.
“These pathways are not abnormal. We must be aware of the operation of these pathways, directly and indirectly, at the individual, family, and community levels. These feelings have been practised over generations, normalising and justifying them as appropriate societal behaviours”, Dr. Wijesekara said, further describing these pathways as natural responses to suffering.
The flaws in governance, justice, political participation, and manipulation of the emotional responses of the individuals, families, and communities by opinion leaders have created environments for such emotional responses to be understood as the only options available.
Middle way, the desired path of action
Dr. Wijesekara proposed that the desired response pathway to the suffering during the economic crisis should be neither of the above two options. Instead, a middle pathway is needed. This is an intentional pathway where the response to the suffering is based on compassion, care, and hope. This desired intentional emotional response should ignite corrective action, leading to innovation, testing, and scaling-up solutions to the crisis at the individual, family, and community levels.
“By doing so, it will be possible to alleviate suffering and promote the wellbeing of communities. It should also be noted that this middle pathway will invariably be based on nonviolence, because any form of violence will add to the aggravation of suffering”, Dr. Wijesekara clarified.
Desired pathway and community resilience
Dr. Wijesekara describes “community resilience” as the ability of systems to prepare, face, and recover from challenges using their resources. “A favourable emotional response to a crisis is a critical component of community resilience. Therefore, the challenges of the current economic crisis in Sri Lanka must promote positive emotional responses in favour of compassionate action to address the suffering, which could promote community resilience”, explained Dr. Wijesekara.
Community and opinion leaders have a critical role in promoting the desired emotional response to the economic crisis. In addition, religious and faith leaders, youth leaders, social media activists, civil society leaders, and professionals have a significant duty to promote the desired emotional pathway as a legitimate and feasible alternative. A compassionate, solution-oriented emotional response to the current economic crisis by the individuals, families, and communities is critical until a sustained solution to the problem is curated, Dr. Wijesekara said in conclusion.