How are you doing with the news of the spreading COVID-19 virus?
Have you checked? Really checked within yourself to see what is happening in your mind, emotions, body, communications, and behavior?
It’s important to realize that your propensity to deal with stressful events is wired within your beliefs, behavior, and general response style.
If you are a fearful person, you’re likely to experience greater fear now. If you are an angry person, you may get riled up about the way the media, government, or your neighbor are handling the outbreak. If you are a calm person, your response will include sturdiness and the intent to return to a calm center. If you’re avoidant, you may have gone full ostrich by now.
If you’re not looking within yourself, you are missing something vital to your wellbeing.
“Who am I in relation to this current situation?” This helpful question, offered by the spiritual teacher Thomas Huebl, points you within yourself. Within your own style of responding. It encourages you to own your response at all levels of your experience.
This self-assessment offers you valuable information and a map to a calmer, sturdier way of being.
Imagine if you checked in with yourself and found you were anxious. Afraid of where the outbreak would appear next. Nervous about going out. Worried about your family and friends. Preoccupied with watching the news and talking about what occurred today. Spreading the updates about who was impacted and how.
This response is totally understandable and even social encouraged at this time. Yet, is it helpful?
Sure, it can be a bit helpful if it has you practicing good hygiene, avoiding crowded places, and eating well. And it can be a lot harmful if you are preoccupied with this fearful news and speculation while flooding your body with cortisol and other stress hormones. Not taking action to change this response – or getting help from others to guide you – will leave you in an anxious loop, wreaking havoc on your body-mind (and your immune system).
[Check out last week’s blog, Breathing Through It, to understand the debilitating effects of persistent stress and how to intervene.]
We live in an interconnected, interdependent world.
This has always been the case, but it is now experienced differently with the benefit of airplanes, international business, the internet, and social media. Everything affects everything. Even if you don’t notice it.
Everyone has a contribution to make here. What’s yours?
Eavesdropping on your own conversations is a powerful way to gather intel on how you are reacting to events. How often does the topic of the virus come up in conversations and what is the flavor of that dialogue? Don’t miss your internal chatter as that is where the scary stories unfold rather quickly.
With this knowledge, you can map a plan to navigate your internal response to external events.
You know the basic hygiene. You know the state of your own health.
I’m wiping down everything at Soul Sanctuary a lot. It has never been cleaner. (Plus I’m working some Light and Energy magic ’cause that clears the fear and negativity.)
I’m washing my hands in hot water and singing Happy Birthday twice as recommended. I’m gonna learn the words to the Macarena soon cause it’ll be more fun and I can wiggle my hips as I wash.
And I’m supporting those who need to stay away from crowds and make wise choices due to health concerns. All while encouraging them not to repeat the oft told story of how old folks or sick folks are really at risk. Your stories have power. Choose them well and encourage others to do the same.
Turn off the news. Fear and stress are contagious.
Television is hypnotic. Leaving you more susceptible to the type of information that flows to you. The media knows this.
Ask yourself: Are news stations broadcasting calming, empowering strategies to care well for yourself and your neighbor? Or are they promoting fear, drama, and doom? Why call this a deadly virus when 98% of people recover? It scares you, hooks you, and keeps you watching.
If you’re anxious and finding it hard to calm your worries, talk with someone who can help.
The intent is to calm the fires, not set them. So, choose someone who feels sturdy and ask for specific ways to calm your mind, emotions, and body.
If you’re calm and sturdy, see where you can be of assistance.
Compassion. Generosity. Kindness. Presence. Appreciation. These attitudes and actions are critically important in the way we treat ourselves and others. Now is a good time to increase self-awareness and your practice in these areas.
Tend to your own energy body.
There are lots of helpful ways to boost the immune system and calm the stress response. Check out this youtube video put out by Donna Eden to support you with energy medicine techniques.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSF8z50nz70
Emotions and people’s opinions are contagious.
I’m planning on spreading some sturdiness, optimism, and compassionate support to those I meet (and those who read this).
Peace be with you and with all. No exceptions.
“Be the Change you Wish to See in the World.”
Ghandi understood that every action, large and small, had an effect on your internal and external worlds. As Soto Zen master Shunryu Suzuki taught, “There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.” Phew. There goes the pressure to become enlightened! Now you can get busy offering the enlightened action. Changing worlds. Yours and ours.
Learn the one essential skill that allows you to face any challenge with confidence, sturdiness, and inner calm.
More than a technique. It’s a game changer.
In September, I’m returning to the Temples of Humankind in Damanhur, Italy. It feels like an understatement to claim that this is a place of power, mystery, and majesty. Yet, I’ve found this to be true for myself and those I’ve met who’ve traveled within the extraordinary to the Temples and the community of Damanhur.
One cool Spring morning, I stepped on the treadmill at the gym looking forward to walking a few miles. Recovering from an injury, I had to walk at a moderate pace so I had brought my copy of What Is Enlightenment? magazine to explore. I always found something to inspire me within this publication focused upon consciousness, culture, and cosmos.
Stress is a natural experience in life. It’s often viewed as a doorway to disruption of wellbeing, peace of mind, and a clear navigational path in a challenging situation.
I’m a bit of a news hound these days. As one who hasn’t watched a newscast in years, I’m surprising myself. Ordinarily, I wait for the news to come to me. And it does. When something is important for me to know or respond to, I hear about it. Kind friends, clients, my husband, or a random stranger share a soundbite which cues me to look into a situation further. I’ve been very comfortable with this level of engagement for years now.
In the midst of our country’s woes, I’ve got Lucinda Williams singing in my head.
“You can’t rule me
you wanna go and tell me what’s good for me
you wanna tell me what I’m payin’ for
Well, the game is fixed, it’s plain to see
I ain’t playin’ no more”
I drove through a hail storm today. It began gently, offering a musical accompaniment to my journey. Intensifying, the hail noisily demanded my attention.
