We're gonna high five maybe.
Can we?
No.
Wait. My hands
disappeared.
[laughter]
Close enough.
♪ ♪
Hey, everyone. It's Elijah
for CBC Kids News.
And if you watched our
last two videos then
you know why I look
the way I do.
But if you haven't, let me
enlighten you real quick.
This is my virtual avatar.
And what good is
a virtual avatar
 without a virtual studio?
 So what do you guys think?
And even though I'm in this VR
studio right now,
I'm actually at home
with my VR headset on.
Hi.
This interview series in our new
VR studio is all about COVID-19.
We've experienced
a lot of changes
during these past few months
and big changes like that
can be very scary.
We've asked kids
across Canada
to submit questions
about how they're feeling.
And today we're going to
talk to Dr. Carlton Duff
to see if he can help answer
some of those questions.
 He's hanging out in his office
 in British Columbia
 and I hooked him up
 with a VR headset
so that he can join me
here today.
So let's head over
and talk to Doctor Duff.
♪ ♪
Hey, Doctor Duff.
You're probably used to this
whole VR thing by this point.
Yeah I kind of feel like
I can come back here any time
and feel right at home.
The pandemic has been
hard on a lot of people
and many people find it scary.
Can being scared affect
your mental health?
That's a great question.
And the thing about being scared
is there's actually
nothing really wrong
with being scared.
Sometimes we're scared of
things that are actually
pretty dangerous, you know?
Like a bear that's
really hungry.
And we should feel scared
because that feeling helps us
stay safe.
We run away from the bear.
Sometimes we feel scared of
things that aren't dangerous.
That's when it starts to
affect our mental health.
What happens to us
when we feel scared?
Well, it's probably easiest to
understand that there's
four parts to feeling scared.
The first is
the actual emotion,
the feeling that you have
that we call fear.
The other parts are like
the thoughts that you might have
that something bad or something
dangerous is going to happen.
Then there's also stuff that
happens inside of our body
that tells us
we're feeling scared.
Some people might notice
that their chest
or their heart pounds, they feel
tight in their throat,
or even dizzy or
like they might faint.
And then the last part
about being scared is
the stuff that we do. Feeling
scared makes us stay safe.
We stay away from the
stuff that's dangerous.
So it makes us want to do
things to get away, to escape.
Are there things that we can do
when we're feeling scared
that can help us
when dealing with fear?
Yeah. When we're scared
in the moment
and we want to try and calm
ourself down
because we know it's
not actually dangerous,
there are things
that we can do.
One of the easiest things
to do is to try and do
long breathing.
You probably heard
somebody say take a deep breath.
But what I think they really
mean is take a long breath.
What that means is breathing in
and counting slowly to five
and then doing the same thing
by breathing out
and counting slowly to five.
The reason why this works
is that our brain actually
sends us messages to our body
that tells our body to react.
To get ready to run away.
Since we know there's
nothing dangerous,
we can actually use our body
to tell our brain
that everything is cool.
So by doing this breathing
we send messages up to our
brain that say, "Relax,
everything's all right".
Let's take a look at the screen
at our next question
submitted by a Canadian kid.
I've heard people say we would
have to wear masks forever,
and that worries me.
Would we have to
wear them forever?
That's a really
good question.
When we think about things like
"forever" or "never" or "always"
it can really
make us feel scared.
The truth is is that there's not
really any such thing as
"forever" or "always"
or "never".
These are just ideas.
And when we think these ideas,
they make us feel more scared
than we need to be.
So whenever we hear ourselves
say things like
"always" or "never"
or "forever",
it's a good clue that we might
have to actually
tell ourselves something
that makes more sense.
We've got another question
from Umeshi.
Let's check it out.
What can I do
if I'm always worried
or scared about the future?
I think Umeshi's thinking
a lot about the future.
Let's head to another
visualization
and we can talk
more about it there.
♪ [upbeat]
Elijah: Wow this room
 looks like some kind of
future science fiction place.
It does, yeah.
And it's kind of neat
to imagine
what the future might be like.
You know what happens
sometimes is that
we think a lot about
the future, but also
the bad things that might
happen in the future.
And that's the thing about
our thoughts is that
when we think about
good things like puppies,
it makes us feel good.
But when we think about bad
things like bad stuff happening,
it can make us feel scared.
And the trouble too is
that you might start to worry
or think about those
bad things over and over
as a way to try and kind
of solve the problem.
Maybe if we think
about it enough,
we actually can get out of it.
But that's not
really what happens.
What usually happens
is then we think about
all the other ways that
things could go wrong
or something bad
could happen.
And then we get more and
more scared and stressed.
Whenever we notice
ourself worrying,
that's usually a clue that
we might be trying to
fix the future, to try and
stop these bad things
from happening.
It's such a great chance
for us to focus on
the good stuff that
might happen too.
I have to say these
visualization rooms
have been dope.
Thank you again for taking
time out of your day
to come and talk to me and
answer some kids' questions.
Who knows? Maybe one day we'll
be able to meet in real life.
I'd really like that, Elijah.
Hopefully these videos
have answered some of your
questions and concerns
during these tough times.
And if this is the
first video you've seen
in our new virtual studio,
be sure to check out
our other two.
You hear that?
Nothing, right?
No beeping. No burnt food smell.
Nada.
That's because I decided
it was probably best
if I didn't cook while also
using my VR headset.
Hmm.
Maybe I should start
a VR tips and tricks guide.
I'm getting pretty good
at this.
For CBC Kids News,
I'm Elijah Sandiford.
Bye.
I can't believe we still
haven't figured out
this whole peace sign thing.
I really have to change
my sign off.
Unbelievable!
♪ ♪
