The 3 Top Ways to be Most Productive During a Pandemic
With the current state of the affairs changing daily, I want to support you in moving through this transformative time in a way that creates more ease instead of more stress. Let’s face it – it is hard not to feel the underlying stress that is out in our world right now with working from home, schooling kids at home, boosting our immune systems, and physical isolation on top of our work demands and so many other things you may be experiencing. Fear, confusion, loneliness, boredom, exhaustion from Zoom meetings and being online – these are all depleting feelings that lower our immune system, lower our good feeling hormones and can make us feel sad and depressed.
When you are being challenged and up against hard situations in life, what have been the key practices that have supported you in allowing the challenge to transform you? That is what this time is about.
How are you choosing to allow it to transform you? In allowing it to happen, we ease the stress and resistance in our mind and our body. Even if we have good practices in place, we still feel the stress when we go out. There is a presence of the unknown fear that is prevalent all the time in our environments. Everyone, no matter how centered and calm you are, is being impacted on a physical and emotional scale.
When we are able to build in practices that support our ease and calmness from the inside out, this increases our ability to trust, allow what happens to occur, and trust the transformation we are all in the midst of to polish you, your life and work into something even better. When we operate in that space, no matter what is being said outside of us, there is an inner calm. This state of being is what allows us to be resilient in times of chaos, to lead better, think better and have clearer insight into creativity and innovation and the action we do need to take.
3 Key Ways That Will Support Your Productivity:
Surrender = Letting Go:
Leaning into the discomfort allows you to surrender.
The spiritual definition of surrender means that a believer completely gives up his own will and subjects his thoughts and deeds to the will and teachings of a higher power. When we let go, relax and choose to surrender, we feel better and experience more joy in our life.
By letting go and truly allowing your body and mind to surrender, you give up control. Control is fear-based. If you give up control, you begin to transform your fear into trust and into something bigger.
Everything serves our growth – so how can you begin to use this mantra to allow yourself to truly surrender even a little every day?
Creating Calm = Being More Present
Being calm allows your mind to find better solutions.
Calmness is a state of trust; it is about receiving guidance for what doesn’t make sense. When your presence is calm, you create calmness around you. You become the Buddha in the center of the chaos.
Create as much calm as you can to allow your whole being to relax, such as lighting a candle, playing relaxing music, drinking calming tea, taking a hot bath, teaching your children how to relax with you, turning off the TV and technology and relating to one another, laughing together.
Here is one of my favorite artists, Peter Kater from his CD, Migration:
There has been scientific evidence that music reduces stress and eases anxiety. There is even an app called brain.fm that plays different music to relax, focus, sleep, etc.
Being in Silence = Deep Insight
Silence is what gets our attention to what is important.
We are in information overload most of the time, and it is so important to give your brain a break.
When we allow even 5 minutes a day in silence, we are able to begin to listen to what is in our hearts, to hear our intuitive knowing for guidance and direction for what we need in that moment for ourselves, our work and the challenges in front of us – emotional or physical.
I know silence is hard for a lot of you. We live in a world that has taught us to be distracted. The more distracted we have become, the more we have lost touch with our heart and what really makes us happy. Silence teaches us to learn to deeply listen to ourselves and, in turn, to others. This will impact how you lead and relate to everyone and everything.
Take a walk without your earbuds, and sit in silence every day. It doesn’t matter how long you sit in silence; just start with where you are, with what is easy, and trust it will grow. If it is a challenge to sit in silence, try focusing on counting your breaths. I have a simple exercise you can download from my website.
By incorporating the practices of surrender, calm and silence, you will begin to feel more resilient from the inside out and teach yourself, your kids and your team how to harness a way of being that will move everyone forward from a place of ease and trust. When you feel calm and trust the moment at hand, your team, your partner and your kids will feel it. This will support all of us in allowing this time to transform us in ways greater than we could have ever imagined.