Ground yourself, stay calm, connect with who you are. I have said it (a lot!), I have heard others say it, but what does it actually mean and how do I do it?
Watching everything that is going on around us and also being totally engrossed in Instagram has left me with a certain awareness of how overwhelming all this information at this time can be and how many questions it can bring up.
Do I panic buy toilet paper? Do I stay in? Do I go out? Am I scared? Are we safe? Can I trust?
So Here's the Thing....
Everything we think and feel is external to us, is actually not. It's all inside us.
Read that again.
And again.
Let it land with you.
Yes the information is there, yes Coronavirus is actually happening, yes we do need to take care and take precautions, yes we need to stay home, but our internal feelings and thoughts feeding the way we are reacting right now, are based on our past.
There have been moments in our lives, sometimes a split second, in which we made a decision about ourselves or about life, that keeps replaying how we live now. It could have been something really big like a death of someone close to us or something as quick as the moment your first doll broke. Those moments and the emotions we felt, are what we map back to when we feel under stress or triggered or in some way reminded we are not safe. This is what starts the cycle of our behaviour, our old behaviour dictates our current behaviour. We think this is new, but actually we are replaying the past.
Even the numbness, the pretending it isn't happening is a replay of what happened in the past. I can share this as this is my behaviour. We either fight, flight OR freeze. In me is a small frozen child. When I feel unsafe, I freeze, I escape the situation, I become numb. Thats what I started to do when all the information stared to flow in. I pretended it wasn't happening.
BUT what this also tells us, is that we are not our behaviours. We are more than that, but we identify with them like they are us.
What Can We Do?
Firstly let's create some space between what feels real to us based on our past and what's true.
Grounding yourself is the ability to be completely aware and conscious during the present moment. This gives us space from fear which is based on the future and regret that might be coming up, which is based in the past. Grounding and being present allows us to zoom out, get clear on what's really going on, release overwhelm and make choices that feel powerful instead of being a victim.
Here are my steps to staying grounded:
Breathe, deeper than you ever have before, breathe into your kidneys. The number one thing to do is be with your breath, it is the powerhouse that keeps us alive, brings us back to the moment AND reminds us that we have a body. We have fingers and we have toes. When was the last time you breathed into those?
Journal on what is coming up for you. Become aware of where your mind is taking you and take some time to distinguish what is real and what is playing out for you from a place of fear.
Practice Gratitude. This one I love. When you feel overwhelmed, name 5 things you are grateful for. Choose to raise your vibration in this world and focus what we have right in front of us.
Connect and love. Take time to connect and share with those around you how you feel, reach out to those less able and more vulnerable, connect with your heart. Spend some time looking at the preciousness of your life and those around you.
Nourish. Prepare meals that nourish your body, walk slowly, notice your feet, take time to gently massage cream into your aching body.
Doing these small acts will give us the space to step back from the anxiousness, the fear, the numbness in any situation we feel unsafe in and give us back our choice.
Grounding ourselves gives us freedom. Freedom from who we think we are and connects us to who we really are. Liberate yourself from feeling like a victim, take back your power softly. You are you, you are not your behaviour. Stay solid in this place, when times FEEL like crisis.
Live gently and simply my loves,
Ash x
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