As we move deeper and deeper into this pandemic experience we are confronted by the day, by the hour and by the minute with information, misinformation and opinion that seems to; at every turn, stimulate fear. Knowing when you are operating from Fear instead of Love can make navigating through this transformational time much less traumatic and stressful.
Our mind is an amazing thing; and quite frankly, also a deadly part of the human experience. The mission of the mind is to support whatever is your predominant energy. What that mean is in every situation we have a perspective- based on our beliefs, training, upbringing, life experience, trauma, etc. When we are confronted with a big event, like the Corona virus, and we’re also confronted with the potential ramifications of that event on healthcare, finances, food, and family, we also find all of those things that create our perspective are also stimulated. You could call it the perfect storm.
With all of that stimulation and information coming at you at once, your mind goes on a mission. What is the mission? To find all information stored in the subconscious that relates to this perfect storm of input and experience, and then to create a narrative that supports wherever your focus is. The mind will “make up”; from your past experiences, whatever story it wants, in order to provide you with a way to make sense of this “scary” new experience. Why does this create a perfect storm? Because everything that comes from that “story” is based in Fear. Holy crap! What?!?! How?!?! Why?!?!?
This is actually really good news! If you can embrace that understanding, you can choose a different approach. The reason everything that comes from that is fear is because all the information you are working from, via the mind, is largely not real or true. And it is all based on the past. Why is that important? Because we are in the midst of something most of us have never experienced. We are moving through experiences of change, brought on by this pandemic, that we have little to no experience with how to manage. This “supernatural” experience is presenting us enormous opportunities to explore “supernatural” solutions. In order to explore these opportunities, we have to be able to identify when we are operating in fear. If you can accept the premise that we mostly operate from fear, it makes it that much easier to shift away from that perspective.
So how you know when you are in fear? Let’s explore the top 6 ways to identify it:
-Catastrophizing. All (or most) thoughts go to the extreme about all of it. You’re going to get it. There won’t be enough equipment for me. I’m going to lose everything. I don’t want to die. The Walking Dead is real!
-Spinning. Allowing your mind to take you down any rabbit hole about death, destruction, etc. Everything feels desperate and hopeless. What am I going to do about…??? What if…???
-Excessive attention to the media. While it is important to stay informed, obsessing on the news and following every aspect of all the drama only serves to keep you in a negative spin cycle. There are no solutions there. Only more spin and paralysis.
-Every choice you think to make stimulates more fear and insecurity. Nothing is all good or all bad. When you are centered, grounded and take steps to raise your vibration and shift your state, your clarity improves. You begin to tap into something greater and more. That elevation of your personal energy opens you to greater and greater opportunity and relieves the stress of what you don’t know and what you cannot control or change.
-You get caught in feeling out of control. You feel powerless because your focus is on the thing(s) that neither you or anyone else has any control over.
-Your survival feels threatened. Notice the word “feels”. The survival instinct is not about fear. It is about awareness. The mind likes to use fear if it determines there is a threat to survival. This is a big one right now because we are being confronted on multiple levels of our experience. Again this “feeling” is about powerlessness.
Of course, it is natural to experience all of these things. The important thing to remember here is that you are not powerless. If you are feeling or experiencing any of the above, you are being run by fear. This is completely unnecessary for your survival and it absolutely keeps you, and your loved ones, from thriving through the changes we are currently experiencing in the world. There are many very powerful and effective tools that you can adopt to give you the power to shift out of fear to opportunity, and more importantly, Love. A few of the tools immediately available to you are:
- Meditation- quiet the mind. Practice cultivating the observer by using breath and focus to quiet the mind. Some good apps include “Insight Timer” or Oprah and Deepak, “Getting Into the Vortex”. There are MANY options.
- State shifting exercises- there are many breathing exercises that will accomplish this. There are apps like “State” or “Getting Into the Vortex”
- Vitamin D- get out in the sun! Feel the warmth and power. Drink it in.
- Connect with nature- take conscious walks in nature. Breathing and observing
Mix things up! Create a flow schedule that supports you engaging one or all of these tools throughout your day. The more you engage the greater the shift you will experience!
Please remember…the first step in the process is you recognizing when you are in fear and then taking steps to shift that IMMEDIATELY. There is nothing to indulge there. There is truly nothing of value there, and there is NO positive, forward moving power there either. Let’s use all the tools in our incredible tool boxes to be conscious of all of our choices during this pandemic and massive time of transformation. Love YOU more each minute!
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