This blog will be slightly shorter than usual due to the very demanding situation in which we find ourselves right now but I hope it will be practical, to the point and helpful. And actually, that is the frame of mind I have been in for the last ten days. To begin with I berated myself for falling into the trap of driven doing yet again; but after taking this into practice I realised that this is just what minds do in this situation. I really don’t believe that getting philosophical is going to be helpful right now. Right now it’s important to be very much in the here and now – what we can touch, what we can hear, what we can see, smell, taste. This will anchor us to the present moment and put an end to the catastrophising, even if only for a short time. We can always come back to it when we need to.
It is important to understand what is happening now.
Right now, we are facing an enemy, only we can’t see it. We keep being told it is here, but we don’t know exactly where. And this creates a problem for our minds. Our minds have evolved over millennia to seek out danger, and then work out how to either avoid it or deal with it, i.e. hide, flight or fight. The human brain is made up separate parts which work well together most of time but not always, and the primitive brain has been well and truly woken up.
This isn’t a problem in itself. Your mind is doing what it should be doing, looking for danger and trying to find ways to keep you safe. This involves raising our anxiety levels in order to keep us vigilant. We need to be vigilant or we would forget to wash our hands, to avoid touching the face and to keep our distance from others. It is interesting that the age group who are least vigilant are the young adults who lack the sense of danger that younger and older humans feel – necessary in a war when you need the fittest in society to physically fight the enemy with little fear for their own safety.
Unfortunately, this isn’t that kind of war. And it is something we have not faced in living memory so our poor brains are constantly running through scenarios to find a solution which doesn’t yet exist. Hence the raised anxiety and constant worrying.
But we can control this. When we realise that this is simply a program running through the mind, looking for worst case scenarios in order to be ready if they happen in reality, we can just stop. Take a breath, look at what is around you, ground yourself in the weight of your body, feel the floor beneath you, come back to what is really happening, in this moment. Again and again. Hundreds of times a day, every time we feel the anxiety rising to a level that is too uncomfortable, when thoughts are running out of control, just stop. Breathe. Ground yourself and then in that space, you can see more clearly. You are able to make decisions based on what is happening right now. And be compassionate with yourself, your mind is only doing its job.
There is a wonderful explanation of this in the following article, ‘That Discomfort You’re Feeling Is Grief’; Scott Berinato’s interview with David Kessler, the link is here and he explains it in much more detail than I can.
Recently I was meditating on my own feelings and as I worked on re-connecting my mind, heart and breath I experienced a ‘thawing out’ as feelings I had buried returned. I felt like I had been bent backwards under the weight of it all, just from a practical level moving everything online has been a lot of work and I am exhausted. I saw myself as a reed, bent completely flat by the deluge of this river but then I saw my roots, strong and grounded, there was no problem here. This is my practice keeping me firmly in one place.
Once I returned to this place of being grounded, I was able to see the now, the path I am on this moment, how this fits in with my own wider picture and then within the whole picture. I was reminded of the evidence of cleaner rivers and clean air returning after just a short while of reduced pollution. The earth is heaving a sigh of relief as human activity slows and stops. We need to do the same.
So every hour just stop. Breathe. Remember your mind is on overdrive and that is normal. It is human. Heightened anxiety is normal and human as well. You are not alone and you can control it. You have the skills to override this program and come back to reality. Focus on what is constant, what hasn’t changed. Focus on some of the good coming out of this – the kindness, the time shared together, the discovery of new skills or interests, and keep meditating. You are boosting your immune system as well as giving your brain a rest, even if it interrupts your meditation more than usual, recognise this is just how it will be, and return to the breath.
May we feel safe, may we feel at ease and without suffering.
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