Both pathogen and body hold power, but we are only in control of one. So much focus these days are on the coronavirus pathogen, so I want to shift focus in a small way to draw our attention to the habits and mindsets that have helped me cope with adversity in the past and that I am being called to rely on again now as part of my strategy to depower pathogen and empower my body.
As I prepare myself mentally and physically for the coming weeks, I am reminded of all the other times in my life in which external circumstances shifted in ways beyond my control and forced me into groundless uncertainty. In this case, however, I have companionship in this experience. We are all in situation in which external circumstances beyond our control are forcing changes upon our lives. There are many ways to react to groundless uncertainty into the power of things beyond our control. The healthiest reaction that I’ve experienced is a slowing down to cultivate a mindful awareness of what is real and what isn’t in order to support a conscious choosing of what we want to experience and what we want to let go of. With this choosing comes a bold and determined commitment to stay connected to ourselves and our loved ones with as much compassion, grace and generosity of spirit as possible, as well as a willingness to meet fear and reactivity at the door and shake its hand because, although fear has value and merit, we don’t want fear and the irrational decisions that come with it to be in the driver seat of our lives.
This is a decisive time for all of us. It will become a part of our history before we know it and, as each moment passes, we will have an ongoing opportunity to decide how we want to shape this history. This is no small or trivial task on hand. In my own personal life, I am facing many fronts of adversity. The pending hardship of certain financial realities are not lost on me. Yesterday, when I went to deposit my Canadian paycheck into my U.S. bank account, I was hit by the financial reality of a steep drop in the Canadian dollar. As I went to get supplies at the grocery store, I was struck by the realities of unrest and uncertainty. I noticed a strange combination of angst, apathy and or disregard so many ways of orienting to the same information.
Many questions come to mind: How do I best support a future group good for myself and my child as a single mom? How do I navigate five weeks of school closure and working from home in my small apartment in a way that meets my needs for focus and quiet, my son’s need for learning and our collective needs for health, fun, play, ease and connection.
I am grateful for a great many things and I have a lot of privilege even with my challenges on hand. The reality is that the coming weeks will impose an imbalance of hardships between the “haves” and “have nots” as resiliency is easier with resources and support.
This is a defining moment for our societal choosing of the kind of humanity that we wish to create for all sentient beings.
When I envision my ability to step into my best self for facing the coming weeks, when I envision our society stepping into its best self in the coming weeks, I envision an enhanced practice of daily meditation, outdoor exercise, healthy eating and strong bedtime routines that support deep rest and adequate sleep. I also see a need to get very clear on my goals and my plan to meet those goals in order to anchor me and to maintain equanimity during this time.
My hopes in creating this blog/vlog is to support our collective ability to shape this circumstance in a way that points us in a direction that we want to go rather than in a direction we fear but don’t know how to avoid. If we all choose to engage the work of paying attention and choosing right action then we will help empower our society’s ability to move toward more healthy circumstances for all. To borrow a phrase from Brian Johnson: Let’s do this!
Copyright (2020) by Rachael D. Mueller according Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
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