I wanted to take some time to touch on something that’s happening all around the world at the moment.
Fear!
It’s hard to escape the continual news reports of the spread of the new coronavirus at the moment. I don’t have a TV, but every time I connect my smartphone to wifi or data, there’s a new update, alert or news report being pushed forward for me to see.
I was eating lunch the other day at a café that happened to have a TV on the wall. All I saw were updates of the coronavirus – more reported cases in this area or that country, and this many more deaths.
As someone who is sensitive to the energy of what is put out by the media and social media, it feels like the fear that’s being spread is more contagious than the virus itself – infecting so many more than the virus ever will.
You may not even get infected by this new coronavirus, but you might be infected by the fear around it.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting we ignore the virus! The point I’m trying to make is that whatever the world throws at us we don’t have to get caught up in fear.
We can navigate it mindfully and with heart.
An Opportunity
This is an opportunity to practice mindfulness and deepen your own self-awareness. So, I have a few suggestions:
1 – Understanding Your Own Fear
To gain a deeper understanding of fear and your own emotional landscapes, start by noticing how you’re responding to all the news at the moment.
Does it make you feel anxious, stressed or worried?
Refrain from judging or justifying your emotions. Just allow yourself to feel them.
Usually when we’re going through anxiety, stress or worry, the emotion triggers thoughts… and the thoughts create stories and dramas in our mind that amplify the emotion and make everything far more complicated.
If you can just stay present with the underlying emotion, you remove a significant level of intensity… You also become more aware of what’s happening at a deeper level of your mind, while at the same time learning to navigate your mind and emotions consciously.
We could call this emotional intelligence, but it’s essentially being self-aware.
2 – Understanding Human Fear
The other thing you can do is to notice how other people are responding to the news. Notice the people who react with fear and panic, and notice the people who really aren’t affected by it at all.
When we observe (without judgement) how other people behave in different situations, we can learn a lot about the human mind… and the principle are the same for all of us.
In doing so, it helps us understand our fellow humans.
Understanding opens our heart and brings us closer together. When we judge and criticize others for their behaviour, it’s done from a space of separateness and disconnection, which ultimately closes our heart and takes us further apart from each other and leads to conflict.
Understanding facilitates peace and compassion.
To create a more peaceful and connected world (the mission of the Peacekeeper Project), understanding it an important key!
In this same line, pay attention to the fear that’s projected from the media. Feel the energy of it. It can feel quite intense!
If you’re a sensitive soul, then you’ve probably already felt it without even needing to see any media!
Again, we’re not judging it, we’re just becoming aware of it.
The more consciously aware of it we are the less it can impact us unconsciously.
3 – Find Stillness
My last suggestion is, find stillness inside yourself.
Remember, the stories and dramas that fill your mind complicate and amplify your stress, anxiety and overwhelm. Quiet this aspect of your mind and you gain much greater clarity on what’s truly happening inside you.
If you can’t find stillness and peace amidst the chaos and noise of your own mind, you’ll never be able to find stillness and peace amidst the chaos and noise of the world.
The stillness inside offers a stable place to rest amidst the chaos of the world.
Stillness is a superpower!
Stillness is like a sense of home inside us, that opens our heart and gives it a stable grounding to express itself in the world… and the world needs more people with a grounded heart.
And when you anchor peace and stillness inside yourself, instead of adding to the collective fear, you help anchor peace and stillness here and now for others!
Invest some of your time to meditate and practice mindfulness, so you can navigate the chaos of the world with heart.
