21/03/2020
Love this post 🙂! Great advice to help us stay focused during these challenging times.
Let's stay grounded and healthy right now. This will pass. In the meantime, here are 11 suggestions on how to take good care of yourself in the heart of this panic-demic:
(1) Maintain your connection to healthy, self-affirming practices. This is not the end of days. Continue to do the things that heal and energize you.
(2) Eat nourishing and life-giving foods. Avoid the tendency to eat too many unhealthy comfort foods. We need your immune system strong right now.
(3) Tend to your emotional triggers with the utmost care. Comfort yourself as often as you need to. Understand that this moment may bring up all your unresolved stuff. Where possible, create space to attune to your inner child. Give her/him all the love you can.
(4) Remain connected to humanity, without putting yourself or others at risk. Stay 12’ away from others, where possible. Utilize social media, and other online tools when it serves you. Detach when it doesn’t.
(5) Create, create, create. This is difficult to do if you are gripping too tightly, but if you can find a creative opening, walk through it. Creation will enliven you, and it will give you hope.
(6) Move your body. If you can’t go outside, move it in your space. We don’t want your body tight and frozen right now. We want it energized and fluid. Physical exercise will bring you back to life.
(7) Practice healthy emotional release. Discharge any emotions that you are holding, so your system isn't burdened. Do not hold on too tightly, or armor your heart. Where possible, move those feelings. Let the river flow.
(8) If you are feeling dangerously alone or self-destructive, reach out for support. Do not get trapped inside of doomsday thinking. Contact a friend, connect a crisis center, call 9-1-1. Again, this is NOT the end of days. We want you here when this pandemic comes to an end.
(9) Practice healthy boundaries (and the art of selective attachment) with respect to who and what you connect with. Disconnect from anyone who suggests that none of this is real, or spews unhelpful conspiracy theories, or who needlessly triggers you with their high levels of anxiety. Boundary yourself against stimuli that perpetuates and intensifies your worry-mind.
(10) Sleep as much as possible. Take naps if you can. And even if you can’t sleep, rest your body. Lie down, and turn on music or films that comfort you.
(11) Trust that we are figuring this out quickly. We are a resilient, imaginative species. We are already seeing signs that this virus can be contained. Trust in that, and release yourself from catastrophic imaginings. We will make it through this in one piece (and one peace 😊).
