We are all filled with gloominess, despair and a sense of uncertainty. Everywhere we turn “sad news” seems to be lurking around. Masses of information is flooding in and overwhelming us. The infection rate is rapidly increasing, along with it is a dark cloud of illness and death. Unemployment is rising, retrenchments are unavoidable. All of our loved ones are so near but also so far, facetime, skype and zoom is just not the same as physically seeing someone. The waves of despair swell each day, and that feeling of hopelessness grows stronger within.
Embrace what you cannot change
Pushing against the wave of COVID 19 is daunting and futile. We need to ride the wave, go with the force and embrace the way life is unfolding. Amidst everything going on around us, let’s look for the positivity in our lives, keep our hearts open and try to release all fears and anxieties. Are you going to spend the remainder of the year living in fear and a constant state of being overwhelmed? OR are you going to take your life and attitude towards life into your own hands by creating your own new normal? I think it’s time that we all embrace what we are unable to change.
Put your energy into what you can control. You have no control over what’s going on in the world right now. BUT you do have control over how you are going to react. Are you going to feed into the negative energy, or are you going to make an effort to respond differently?
We need to ask ourselves what can each of us do to bring calm and peace back into the world? How can we exercise our wisdom, our love and care in these unprecedented times?
7 Tips on how to be the calm in the storm
Take charge of the inner voice, and you decide what it is that you want to feed your mind? Get out of your head! Give the news and social media a break. Read a book, listen to a podcast, go outside and experience nature.
Be forgiving, kind, open-hearted and make a decision to do better and think positive.
Give yourself an emotional boost. Meditate, take a long bath or shower, listen to music and dance. Do whatever you feel you need to do to revive your spirits.
There is no way around discomfort, sadness and pain. Feel your feelings, cry if you must, I mean sit down and have a good “balls to the walls” cry. Allow your emotions to be felt, allow your feelings to flow through you instead of pushing it aside.
Be grateful, there is so much in our lives that we have to be thankful for, remember that you are luckier than most. We spend all this time thinking about the negative that we forget we have so much to be grateful for. Right now think of five things in your life to be thankful for, here is one, you are alive!
Enjoy the small things. Have a slice of cake, a glass of wine, a cup of tea, a hug, take that afternoon nap, build a puzzle, be silly and most importantly laugh.
Share love. Stop waiting for that friend or family member to call. You don’t know what they are going through, pick up the phone and say ‘Hi’. A kind gesture can go a long way in stressful times. Maybe your voice is what they need to hear to get through the day.
“You can’t calm the storm… so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass.” — Timber Hawkeye.
Nothing in life is permanent, and this too shall pass.
“Don’t take life so serious in the end no gets out alive” – Elbert Hubbard