What is the Opportunity of this Virus?

I want to take a moment to provoke your thinking about the Coronavirus, and how the state of your inner world impacts our outer world. As someone that has had lots of hardship in my life and recovered coming back clearer and stronger, I am a firm believer that everything serves our growth. I take the perspective that perhaps this virus is here to teach us something, to bring something into greater focus, and to get our attention about how we are living and being while we are here on planet earth.

I will speak for myself in that the isolation has not been a big hardship for me. Partly because I have a mediation practice of over 20 years and have learned to love the silence, and partly because my work (for the most part) is or can be done virtually. What it is provoking in me is looking at how all my decisions impact the whole of US as a collective.

By my isolating myself even through I don’t believe I will get sick, the fact that I could be a carrier and infect someone that would cause them to get sick makes me realize even deeper how my actions impact the whole. I am seeing how this is the case not just for this virus, but for the foods I buy, the thoughts I think, the words I say, and who I choose to support financially.

I have primarily purchased groceries at Vitamin Cottage or King Soopers, which are our local grocery stores. One store supplies only organic, and the other store stocks a combination. I am realizing a need to support locally grown organic food supplies and the next generation of young farmers. I am looking at the things in my diet, such as chai tea which I love and always crave, that I can no longer have from the coffee shop, and asking myself, “Is it really necessary to put all that sugar in my system?” I am looking at how I can “clean” my diet to an even greater degree, learn to eat less and healthier to support a healthy immune system.

I was listening to author and psychologist Dr Shefali’s Instagram message the other day about how she was jogging in NYC, and how she typically complains about all the noise of honking cars, airplanes flying overhead, and people talking. She said when she went jogging, there was silence in the middle of New York City, and she could hear the birds and sounds of nature, and it felt like she was listening to the earth breathing. She recognized that the earth is giving us an opportunity to pause.

Pausing gives us the opportunity to see how alive nature is, and how crazy the reality in your mind actually is. When you pause, your able to develop the observer in your mind and no longer get caught up in your thoughts and own insanity. This pause is helping us witness ourselves and the world, and how we can impact the direction of the collective and how we operate.

I also listened to an interview with bestselling author Margaret Wheatly, and she said we are in societal collapse. Part of societal collapse is updating outdated systems and infrastructure. This virus is having us look at ourselves and society as a whole because it is time to implement new systems. These new systems start with our own personal life, then our local communities, and then our collective as a whole. It is all being shaken up right now trying to get our attention that change is necessary.

What I know for sure about coaching clients is that when disruption happens, such as someone getting laid off of a job unexpectedly, it is best to go with the flow and not fight against it, not resist it and not panic. This all creates more tension and stress and makes it harder to bend with the wind. We are being asked to learn to be flexible, to be willing to be disrupted for the greater good from our business, to our government, to our own lives and to trust where we are and listen to the silence for what we each can do for our own life to make it more peaceful, fulfilled and connected to the whole. When we start with our own life, it then spills into our businesses, communities and the collective.

Silence is necessary to find this out. It makes sense to me that we are being given a situation/virus that is making us go in isolation and allow the systems to breakdown, allow our creativity to bring new systems to fruition, and to slow down for a moment so we can actually feel what we really desire.

While I am holding my own through this, I still feel an underlying anxiety of uncertainty, not sure what the stock market will do, and how this will affect business and my community as a whole. What I have found calming and what supports me in allowing myself to pause in the uncomfortableness are practices that make me feel good:

• Hiking
• Yin Yoga Online – Yoga with Kassandra love her classes and they are all free on YouTube
  or check out my ebook
• Meditation
• Breath Exercises – inhale for 4 counts, hold for 2 counts, and exhale for 6 counts or try this ZaZen Exercise
• Walking slowly verses for a workout
• Connecting with friends and colleagues on video

As they say silence is golden; it is where we can ask ourselves how do I want to live for the rest of the time I am here, and what can I do now to move in that direction?

Be gentle with yourself, take time to rest in silence, and listen to what your body is telling you.

Most of all, please reach out if you need support. We are in this together.