Happy Canada Day my friends! I am so grateful and honoured to call myself Canadian! To be able to live in the majestic beauty of this land, with my friends and family, in freedom and peace, surrounded by the richness and diversity that so many cultures gift us with, is a blessing that I cherish everyday. Eh?
No matter what you may be experiencing in your life, at work or in your relationships you are worthy.
No matter what is going on in your outer world, your worthiness is inherent and absolute.
Even if you have a contemptuous self-loathing relationship with yourself, your worthiness remains irrefutable.
Your self-destructive behaviour can not tamper with your worthiness.
The unpleasant and cutting opinions of others towards you, cannot inflict any damage on your worthiness.
Spiteful, jealous people shredding your character cannot quash your worthiness.
You are emphatically worthy. Period.
Imagine, how your life might be different if you believed that you are ever worthy. π¦
2020, the tipping point, men and women of all races embracing their humanity for all sentient beings, for life itself. π¦
Yes, we are human after all.
Right now, for many of us, our mental and emotional capacity, strength and resilience are being tested and stretched to their limits.
Most of us are yo-yo-ing through the restrictions and unpleasantness of living together yet separately in this unexpected covid-19 world.
One day, we are the heroβs and heroineβs of our story as we slay the slings and arrows of this outrageous pandemic and then the next day we can barely get out of bed let alone purge our house or write the next Pulitzer Prize book.
Itβs okay to be zig zagging on our lifeβs continuum, to feel two things at the same time, to be grateful yet sad, energetic and productive yet lethargic and unmotivated.
Yes, we can be happy to have a home, food, health and safety, and yet feel angry about the unpleasant effects that COVID-19 is having on our lives.
Bottom-line, there is no right way to be, except to be real, honest and vulnerable with ourselves, to compassionately give ourselves permission to be whatever fits in the moment, to move through this βcraziness’ one day at a time. π¦
When we’re stressed, hormones like cortisol flood our systems, producing the ‘fight flight or freeze response’ in which our heart rate goes up, we breathe more heavily and our blood vessels constrict. We don’t always have a choice when it comes to getting stressed, so we may as well work on undoing its effects. With that in mind, this photo has a few ways, backed up by scientific evidence, to keep our stress in check. π¦
Yes there is fear.
Yes there is isolation.
Yes there is panic buying.
Yes there is sickness.
Yes there is even death.
But,
They say that in Wuhan after so many years of noise you can hear the birds again.
They say that after just a few weeks of quiet the sky is no longer thick with fumes but blue and grey and clear.
They say that in the streets of Assisi people are singing to each other across the empty squares,keeping their windows open so that those who are alone may hear the sounds of family around them.
They say that a hotel in the West of Ireland is offering free meals and delivery to the housebound.
Today a young woman I know is busy spreading fliers with her number through the neighbourhood so that the elders may have someone to call on.
Today Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples are preparing to welcome and shelter the homeless, the sick, the weary
All over the world people are slowing down and reflecting.
All over the world people are looking at their neighbours in a new way.
All over the world people are waking up to a new reality, to how big we really are, how little control we really have and to what really matters.
To Love.
So we pray and we remember that yes there is fear. But there does not have to be hate.
Yes there is isolation. But there does not have to be loneliness.
Yes there is panic buying. But there does not have to be meanness.
Yes there is sickness. But there does not have to be disease of the soul
Yes there is even death. But there can always be a rebirth of love.
Wake to the choices you make as to how to live now.
Today, breathe.
Listen, behind the factory noises of your panic.
The birds are singing again
The sky is clearing,
Spring is coming,
And we are always encompassed by Love.
Open the windows of your soul and though you may not be able to touch across the empty square,
Sing.
~ Richard Hendrick (Brother Richard) in Ireland
March 13th 2020
Resonant breathing, also called coherent breathing, can help us calm our anxiety, stress, overwhelm, and help us to get into a more relaxed state.
Deep breathing increases the supply of oxygen to our brain and stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, which promotes a state of calmness.
I personally use and recommend to my clients the 4-7-8 breathing technique, that focuses on the following breathing pattern:
* empty the lungs of air.
* breathe in quietly through the nose for 4 seconds.
* hold the breath for a count of 7 seconds.
* exhale forcefully through the mouth, pursing the lips and making a βwhooshβ sound, for 8 seconds.
* repeat the cycle up to 2-4 times.
I promise you that when you do this correctly, it will greatly reduce your anxiety, stress or overwhelm. π¦
‘Pragmatic Optimism’ is knowing that everything will be ok while we follow the recommendations made by authorities, showing good citizenship, being socially responsible and staying at home. π¦
And the people stayed home.
And read books, and listened, and rested, and exercised, and made art, and played games, and learned new ways of being, and were still.
And listened more deeply. Some meditated, some prayed, some danced. Some met their shadows. And the people began to think differently. And the people healed.
And, in the absence of people living in ignorant, dangerous, mindless, and heartless ways, the earth began to heal.
And when the danger passed, and the people joined together again, they grieved their losses, and made new choices, and dreamed new images, and created new ways to live and heal the earth fully, as they had been healed.
~ Kitty O’Meara
