HOW TO DEAL WITH FEAR IN TIMES OF CORONA ( AND OTHERS) (24/03/20)
When you watch the news, you can hardly feel anything else than fear. The death counter is increasing every day, scenarios of how things could get worse are thrown in our face and the images of what is happening in other countries are horrifying. You cannot possibly feel good about it.
It is true that pain and fear should be given a place, but I think you should not make room for imagined or anticipated pain and fear. I often hear people say "imagine that ..." and then a doom scenario follows that is much worse than reality. Or they say "I can't think about this or that would happen ..." Then don't think about it! Someone has to explain to me the use of worrying about something that might even not happen. That we have to be careful, that is true, that we have to follow the guidelines of the government, I fully agree, but that we unnecessarily worry about imagined disasters, I do not see the point of that. Making yourself and your surroundings anxious about things that might or could not happen is totally useless, unproductive, and terrifying.
Fear is an emotion: energy-in-motion. Fear is an energy that moves something in you. You are touched by something. We are not going to hide it, we are afraid of death. And we must accept this: "yes I am afraid to die and I am afraid to lose my loved ones." Let the emotion run through you when it arises, but don't amplify it by creating images in your mind that further increase the fear. Say to yourself, "I have a moment of fear and this will pass." It is okay to feel fear, but it is not okay to artificially increase your fear by imagining a catastrophic future.
Instead of doing this, I suggest doing one of the following:
• Follow the rules of the government to the last detail to ensure that the virus does not spread further.
• Watch the news only once a day and if this is still too much for your sensitive soul, just read the news headlines on your laptop without looking at the images. It is totally pointless to immerse yourself 5 or more times a day in the troubling and terrifying predictions of the virologists and government members. Maximum once a day is enough.
• Focus on what you can still do now that we are in a "lockdown". Make a list of everything that is possible and focus on the possibilities instead of the limitations. In a further blog you will find a list of possible activities, choose those that give you the most pleasure.
• Try to remain grateful for what you still have: your health, the sun, your house, possibly your garden or balcony, your television, your phone, your smartphone or tablet with which you can keep in touch with friends and family.
• Be grateful that you have family, rather than being annoyed by the fact that you cannot see them now or that your housemates are getting in your way.
• Know that this period also will pass. Everything comes to an end. The corona too. Focus on that and feel already now the pleasure you will have once you will be allowed to take your loved ones in your arms again.
• Try to keep thinking positively. We are not denying the misery of people who suffer, but you are not helping them, in fact you are not helping anyone, by creating doom scenarios in your head or getting depressed. Try to send positive energy to those who need it most: the sick themselves, their families, and the caregivers. This way you help them remotely.
• If you can no longer control your fear, do this: breathe in and out very deeply, make sure that your exhalation is longer than your inhalation, say the word 'love' with each inhalation and alternately these words with each exhalation: ' gratitude, compassion, caring, peace, health '. Or make your own version.
• Visualize your fear as a black ball that you feel somewhere in your chest. Surround that black sphere in your imagination with a bright white light and watch that black sphere getting smaller and smaller as the white light penetrates more and more.
• Imagine that you are connected to the center of the Earth with a thick cord. Visualize and feel your fear slide down this cord, into the Earth, where it is transformed into white light that rises from the Earth and enveloppes the globe.
• Take two chairs and put on one of them a sheet with FEAR written on it and on the other a sheet with the word PEACE. Alternately, sit on each chair and let that part of you that has fear talk to that part that wants peace, and vice versa. Let your fear express herself, really let her say what she's all afraid of. When both parts have made their say, let them make an agreement that everyone can agree to.
• Meditate every day, preferably 3 x 5 minutes, and visualize the corona virus surrounded by white light and watch the virus slowly dissolve in the light.
• Send light and love to all people who are suffering right now. Imagine planet Earth being immersed in a bath of healing, pure energy and coming out completely refreshed. If we do this with many at the same time, this has a really measurable effect. In any case, it is better than emitting fear rays over the others. Around the planet Earth there are two blankets: one of fear and one of love. With every thought and action you knit a bit further on one of the two blankets. Which blanket do you want to knit a bit further?
• You can think of fear as a small child: if you lock this in the hallway and exclude it from your activities, it will make a lot of noise in the hope of being allowed to enter and stay with you. If you let the child join you, it will remain calm. This is also the case with fear: you cannot remove or deny fear, but you can let it "participate". Put a gem in your pocket and send your fear there. Or buy a plant that absorbs your fear when you send it there. Give your fear a place in that symbolic way.
If you allow yourself to feel your fear and you breathe through it, it will remain manageable in small proportions and will not overwhelm you. So on the one hand it’s important not to push your fear away, but give it a right to exist, and on the other hand not exaggerate by activating your doomsday scenarios.
I wish you all a peaceful inner time in this corona period. Use this period to reconnect with yourself and create inner peace so that you can radiate it to your environment. We perhaps cannot choose what happens outside of us, but we can choose what happens inside us! In this blog I gave tips on how to deal with your fear and transform it into peace and light. That's a choice! It is now more important than usual to choose your inner state and not let yourself get overwhelmed by fear. We cannot control many things, but you can control your inner attitude.
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