Such a time as this

In these extreme times of change many have experienced worry, isolation and fear, whilst at the same time, some of us have relished stepping off of the treadmill and the gift of time to re-assess life and our journey through it.

This pandemic has been different for everyone, each one of us has our own story to tell. Some of us worry about what might or could or may happen in the future, whilst others are able to ‘go with the flow’. The reality is, that no matter how much ‘effort’ we put into worrying about what the future may hold either of us as individuals, for the world and all creation, we often cannot change the outcome of the situation we are allowing ourselves to worry about. We can however influence the future through our own decisions about how we may live, respond and be. Yet situations very rarely evolve or happen is as we thought or worried over. It can be hard to acknowledge that our worries, concerns and fears are often connected to our early life experiences rather than with what is happening in the here and now, yet when we worry about the future it is often driven by our past experiences rather than what is happening for us in the present. .

So how can we prevent ourselves worrying? Well, the first thing we can choose to do, is to recognise the truth of the situation we are worrying about, look at the truth of the here and now information. If we look at the pandemic, the truth is it has been hard for many people, those who have lost loved ones without being able to be present, those who have become ill with Covid and now live with long term effects. Those of us who have been lonely and isolated, these are realities and there are many more realities which we can recount from these times which we continue to live through. The truth of the situation which we have lived through and are still working through is that worrying about any of it has not changed anything about events or circumstances.  

We have heard the language of ‘we are all in the same boat’, yet these words are not true and do not help change the situation. If we change the reality to “we are all in the same storm,” we can acknowledge where we find ourselves in that storm. Few of us have a boat, some have a float, whilst some of us are struggling to tread the water where we are. Some have just themselves to think about as they stand, swim or fall in the storm, yet worrying about the storm of the pandemic makes not an iota of difference as to how we might ‘weather the storm.’

We all understand that our bodies and our minds respond to how we think, feel and behave, if we can be real whilst bringing positivity to the fore in our lives, we become physically, spiritually and psychologically more able to live in the moment with gratitude for that moment.  In those moments of gratitude, we release endorphins in our brain which help us manage our mental well-being. Being positive can be as simple as giving thanks for waking up, “I have woken today to a new day.” Being positive can be engaged with on a larger scale, by looking at nature and the seasonal changes, all of which we have no control over, yet the constant changes bring life and death year after year to the world and the universe. We can see how the seasons, day, night, life, death, are all part of life, and whilst it is important to hold our responsibility for our actions it is not our responsibility to worry, because worry cannot change anything. Not worrying also gives us space to be in the moment, right now, I use mindfulness and breathing to concentrate on the here and now, Dr Dan Seigal has an introduction to mindfulness here:

When you have practiced Dr Dan Seigal’s “Introduction to mindfulness,” you may wish to engage a little deeper and further by using his further mindful reflection on the “Wheel of awareness:

This longer, deeper mindful time, invites us to use all of our senses, when I use it, I am brought to a better place of understanding of me in all the areas of my being. When I find myself slipping into worry or the “what if’s of life”, mindfulness helps me to sit in the calm and clear space of my inner self without any need to make things better. As we continue to live in the storm of the pandemic, mindfulness and positive thinking is something that we can learn to do for ourselves. It is something you can do for you and I can do for me, mindfulness conserves energy and enables the reality of self to be experienced more fully in life and relationships. It is truly worth the effort and the energy to engage with. If you struggle with worry, please do have a look at mindfulness, or get in touch and we can look to see how we can work together to see the positives in each new day.