Week One of Social Distancing: Grounding through Gratitude and Service
I’m not sure about you, but I have been on a roller coaster psychologically and emotionally this past week. One moment my anxiety and fear are in overdrive and the next moment I am excited and hopeful, then I feel totally decisive one minute and completely unsure the next. I continue to learn that emotions and feelings are fleeting, even if one stays pretty constant in the background, the foreground is ever changing; and for that I am grateful. I think it’s safe to say we are all feeling pretty uncertain about what lies ahead and this level of uncertainty paired with a complete shift in just about every profession can leave us all feeling a bit unsettled; yet we can all be of service in some way.
On one hand, this has felt like the longest week and on the other hand, I can’t believe I’m winding down my Thursday work day. As I have gone through these ups and downs, I have found myself returning to gratitude and service over and over as a way to feel settled and grounded. When all of our routines are uprooted, we can still keep some consistent routines. Try out some of these, and let me know what else is helping you feeling grounded:
Start or end your day with a gratitude list - just list 1-3 things, big or small. Gratitude changes our neurochemistry.
I start each day with a gratitude list of 3 things, this changes my mindset for the day and let’s me start on a positive note.
Step outside and take 3 deep breaths then say one thing you are grateful for. Whether you have a list that starts or ends your day, we often need some grounding throughout the day too.
Now that I am home working virtually with clients and students, I get to see our dogs more often and each time we take a break and go outside I take 3 loud, sighing exhales then say one thing I’m grateful for. This has left me feeling so refreshed even when I feel like I have just been spinning my wheels.
Take a moment to pause from reading, listening, or talking about COVID-19, and think about how you can be of service; this could be related to your personal or professional life. When we focus on solutions rather than the problem, we often feel more settled.
This week I figured out how to lead virtual classes and one-on-one sessions, which has given me so much focus and purpose. I know not everyone can work from home, but technology offers so many options. I also video chatted with my sister-in-law and had story time with my nieces and nephew which then turned into play time as a was able to use different filters on my face, giving her a slight break in her day and new routines.
Sit in stillness and repeat a mantra to yourself: I am of service, I am grateful, or some other positive statement that bubbles up. Your mind will wander, your body may want to fidget, but continue to find stillness and repeat your mantra. We need to practice rest and stillness to calm our nervous-system so we can continue to endure.
I start my day with meditation (sometimes before the gratitude list and sometimes after) and I take a break sometime after lunch to pause for 5-15 minutes with mindfulness, a mantra on repeat in my mind, and a moment of gratitude; I learned this technique from Stress Less, Accomplish More highlighting the Z technique of Ziva Mediation (and right now they are offering their course at 50% off or FREE for healthcare professionals and first responders! I have no affiliation, I just love the practice.)
Get up or get outside and move. Especially if sitting in stillness feels like torture right now, movement is one of the best ways to quiet our minds.
Daily walks and playtime with the dogs, a workout on the deck in the sun, a virtual community yoga class, and a gentle mobility workout have been helping to keep me sane this week.
All of this takes time, but right now most of us have been given the gift of time so take advantage. What else is keeping you grounded? We all need something to help us feel rooted and stable during these ever changing times. Stay grounded.
I leave you with a few beautiful poems that have come out from this time too:
“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
“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 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.”
- Brother Richard Hendrick
Pandemic
by Lynn Ungar 3/11/20
What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.
And when your body has become still,
reach out with your heart.
Know that we are connected
in ways that are terrifying and beautiful.
(You could hardly deny it now.)
Know that our lives
are in one another’s hands.
(Surely, that has come clear.)
Do not reach out your hands.
Reach out your heart.
Reach out your words.
Reach out all the tendrils
of compassion that move, invisibly,
where we cannot touch.
Promise this world your love--
for better or for worse,
in sickness and in health,
so long as we all shall live.