By Steve and Angie McCord, authors of A Spiritual Path to a Healthy Relationship
Accepting things we cannot change, the courage to change things we can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Alternative options: many doors are closing temporarily during the crisis. What alternatives exist to help us thrive during all this?
Breakdowns, upon looking back, can ultimately be seen as breakthroughs. We are going to come out of this wiser!
This crisis is one way to reduce carbon emissions; I trust we can begin implementing more agreeable measures.
Communing with uncertainty invites us to take many deep, calming breaths and allow faith to be big enough to absorb doubt.
“Dickens Downshift”: we are temporarily getting an opportunity to experience a nineteenth-century slower-paced lifestyle.
“Disaster Fasts”: get news updates a couple of times per day, but give your central nervous system soothing breaks in between.
Emotional Intelligence: check-in with yourself. We can heal what we can feel if we know what it is; have and use the tools.
Exercise: move a muscle, change a thought, improve circulation, give your brain more oxygen, and uplift your mood!
Fun: recall ways you can have fun, honor your inner child’s deepest needs. What are the most loving actions today for yourself?
Gratitude list: believe it or not, there are short- and long-term gifts resulting from this crisis alongside the temporary downsides.
Grief and self-pity are two different things. Allow yourself to grieve losses. Don’t wallow in morbid reflection and self-pity.
Harvest and seize fresh opportunities being offered by this crisis that could have the greatest benefit for your community.
Honor your individual needs and those you live with. Apply skillful communication, negotiation, finding creative solutions.
Humor: lots available, seek it out. There is massive scientific evidence that laughter is powerful medicine!
Imagination: see how many long-term benefits you can imagine coming from this worldwide crisis. Let’s manifest them together!
Joy: cultivate the confidence that you carry the ability to hold 10,000 sorrows and 10,000 joys.
Keep connecting with loved ones, kindred spirits, communities using phone, Zoom conferencing, etc.
Living one day at a time with the best possible attitude. Practice loving-kindness toward yourself and others.
Manage expectations, reactivity, disappointment, and frustration. Google: Anxious to Calm; use meditation apps.
Mind your mind. It makes a wonderful servant, but a terrible master. Mindfulness practice can be a lifesaver in this situation.
Morning quiet time to get connected, directed, inspiration, and creative ideas for living this particular day successfully.
Negativity: there is an abundance available. Don’t gobble and cling to darkness. It weakens the immune system.
Open your heart to all it wants and needs to feel in this moment . . . to thy own self be true. Trust your Life Source deep within.
Passing it on; before passing on, give thought to contributions to the world you wish to make in this lifetime.
Power of pivot: practice awareness and intentionally pivot from negative to positive thought, attitude, action.
Questions: let’s make sure we are asking the right questions; let’s pursue sound reasoning vs. reasons that sound good.
Quality time: children may remember this as a time in their life of special bonding with mom and/or dad, extended family.
Recognize a differing set of needs between extroverts and introverts. Acknowledge them and find a way to honor both.
Stand guard over each other’s solitude. Be willing to harvest benefits of essential silence, stillness, going within.
This too shall pass! The human mind is a wannabe film director. Shall our inner movie be a horror show or a victory blockbuster?
Unhook, don’t get unhinged! Physical distancing yes, social distancing no . . . strong social connections are medicine for the soul.
Victim, Rescuer, Persecutor are three sides of the Drama Triangle. All three disempower us. Decline invites into Drama Triangles.
What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. We will unite, support each other, discover strength we didn’t know we had and prevail!
X; “Cancel, Cancel!” is a helpful and appropriate response to that pesky inner voice that chimes in, trying to torment you.
You know that book you have been wishing you had the time to read? Or write? (Take a bold risk: write a poem and share it!) ZZZs: allow yourself to get plenty of rest and sleep to maintain emotional resilience and keep the immune system strong.
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