How to Stay Calm in Face of CoronaVirus
If you are not in immediate danger, if you have shelter, if you have food at home to survive for today, if you have money in the bank, logically there is really nothing you shall be fearful about. However, our emotions sometimes do not work that way.
This memorable episode in human history can be one that helps all of us learn to be emotionally more resilient, if we capture the opportunity and use it wisely.
Since we are all stuck at home, let’s give it a try, shall we? :)
1. Know that We Never Had Control over Our Lives
At first glance it might seem counter-intuitive, how does this make me calmer when I have no control? Well, we never had it anyway. Did you have control over which parents/family you were born into? Did you have control of your gender? Did you have control of what talents you have? Did you have control as to who you meet in life or what job or school you ended up going?
However, magically, we have been well all these years. Of course there were ups and downs. But we are alive, and we are striving. Being stuck at home is just an inconvenience, a price we have to pay to help our fellow humans to combat the virus. Believe that all will be well ;)
2. Train Our Minds
Our minds are trainable. Great minds are trained. They don’t get to be great minds without conscious effort. To get our emotions to go calm, we will focus our minds on what is in front of us (which implies, emotions are also trainable). Because we have no control so worrying about the future will not be fruitful. We cannot change the past thus reviewing the past will not bring any news. Only right now is what we have and what we shall focus on.
Meditation is historically used to train our minds, to focus, and eventually let go. However, there are many ways to meditate. Using a cushion is only one of them. Ultimately, the goal is always to be mindful.
3. Live in the Present
To live in the present is to be mindful. What is mindfulness? Let’s say you ate a meal. Did you remember every bite of it? Did you enjoy each of those bites? Or were you not present and your tongue (or more accurately your taste sensory input) missed the taste of the meal completely? When we are mindful, we savor every moment of our lives. When we are not, we might miss the entire meal, even though it’s in our stomach already.
Know that to meditate (with or without a cushion) is to train us to live in right here right now.
4. Activities
Consuming media and doing different activities can occupy your mind. It can be a temporary solution to calm yourself. You might even find yourself completely mindful doing many activities, like reading, sewing, counting birds…
5. Silence
For a more robust approach, turn off all media and all sound. Stay in silence and check-in with yourself. Check how every part of your body feels, your toes, your feet, one part at a time. Go up to your shoulder blades, each of your vertebrae, and ends on your jaw, your eyes, and top of your skull. Relax each part of your body. You can do it with or without a cushion. You can do it with your eyes open or closed. The most important is just to try to focus on one part of your body at a time and relax each part.
It is a practice of willing our minds to do what we want our minds to do. There are many more exercises of this nature. When we can master our minds, we can master our emotions.
6. Convince Our Emotion
When your emotions go on rampage, first is to notice that it does. Then try to reason with it. Our emotions could be like a stubborn child. However, if we make the effort, to help them understand it logically, that worrying really doesn’t do anything. Actually, on the contrary, negative emotions will hinder our capacity to act in the face of danger. If we repeat our reasoning enough, it eventually will go into our stubborn child’s system. It works the same like how television or media slowly gets us to believe in somethings that might not be true…
Or just like we need to practice our triple flip on ice. We have to start with one flip, then two, then three. Practice makes perfect.
Conclusion
I wish you optimal health and sustainable happiness!
