Walking along the footpath with the trees leaning down as if wanting to join in the conversation I was having in my head, this question popped in: What’s the use of fear? 
Good question. Earlier, as I sat with my coffee on my window seat watching the light seep in and the sea silently pawing the shingle, I pondered the fact that a person not skilled in psychology, a politician playing a part of a this or that Secretary, had told the entire population of England to act as if they had the virus! The fact that this was a serious directive given to the masses to actually practice made me contract inside. Where is the positive psychology in that?
To give the above statement some context, let me share something that changed my life.
Many years ago I had cancer. The moment I was given the diagnosis I saw my life in a succession of speedy flashbacks (much as it is for some people in the midst of a serious accident). My life was out of control. I had run, like the proverbial hamster on the wheel, from one drama to another. As I stood with the telephone in my hand (yes, I was given the news over the phone!), I knew in an instant that this was not a disaster but an opportunity. A sense of relief flooded through me. The ‘why me’? question forming in my head, swiftly became, ‘why not me’? This is not the place for the whole saga of my journey to health, but it was in all senses, quite miraculous. Through hard work, good intuition and a lot of support, I transformed my lifestyle, mental, emotional physical and spiritual. In truth those different aspects are not separate; they are all contained in the mandala of each individual life. As the planet turns in space, as night becomes day somewhere else, so are we in ourselves reflections of those cycles. One earth, many different components. In that instant I saw that I had two choices: to be a victim, to give in to the pull of fear or to say No.
I learnt a lot from my journey at that time. Much I knew intuitively to be right, but I had been caught up in my story, of fulfilling my perceived “needs” emotionally and physically: a roof over my head, someone to love me; making a living. All these things are grounded in the instincts of survival, but there is so much more to life than this! When I rediscovered the “more”, that which had been hitherto left out in the cold, life became richer – not always without pain and disappointment but it became easier to see situations, feelings etc in a deeper context; not to be utterly driven and disrupted by outside events.
Our immune system does a very good job at keeping us healthy, if we give it a chance. Fear makes us more vulnerable. Of all the aspects that go to make and keep us healthy, such as good nutrition, exercise, and the various stress-busting practices, finding ways to disperse fear when it arises, is of prime importance. Fear is part of “jungle nature”. It spells danger. 
You watch a cat when it senses another cat, or a dog. It freezes and then, depending on the degree of threat, will fight or skedaddle. Simple as that. The same goes for us. If a man is following us, or a car swerves towards us, we run. But if fear is not imminent in a physical sense, but only ‘hearsay fear’, it becomes fuelled by imaginary situations that may or may not happen, and the energy or adrenaline of fear has nowhere to go but inwards where it has every chance of weakening our immune system. Undispersed fear becomes dread and impedes the flow of life. Living a life in fear and dread literally stops life in its tracks.
Yes a conundrum indeed.
So in this current situation, however restricted you are, there is much you can do to disempower the three related states: fear, stress and anxiety. I practice tai chi and qi gong, but if that isn’t your thing there are many types of exercise that will work. Fear has its place, but don’t invite it to stay in your house!