Fear is a huge blackhole for me. I have to be careful or it will suck me in quickly. The fear around the current pandemic is real and having never experienced this type of world-wide health emergency my anxiety is just beneath the surface. Add to this my aging parents being in the high risk category and my daughter-in-law on the frontlines as an ER nurse, the nervousness I immediately feel watching the news my susceptibility to panic is palpable!
And then The Universe whispered to me yesterday….
A crisis is danger meeting opportunity.
I am constantly writing down inspirational quotes – things I hear that resonate with me that I want to remember.
While doing some cleaning yesterday, I uncovered this quote and it seems very appropriate for these times. It immediately lightened my heart.
The danger of the present coronavirus is real. Intentionally looking for opportunity may just be the ticket through these extraordinary times. What opportunities can we discover?
- The first opportunity I wish was being talked about more is the opportunity to support our immune systems – now and everyday. Like most health promoting ideas, you have to look for these underpinnings but they are there. Here are the things that I am doing:
- I am prioritizing my nutrition through eating whole, real, organic food. I am making my diet as colorful as I can with fresh fruits and vegetables every time I eat.
Remember, when it comes to supporting the immune system through your diet it is also very important to reduce inflammatory foods as well. Sugar, gluten, dairy, refined oils, and alcohol add stress to our digestive systems oftentimes creating their own immune response. Bogging down the immune system with these foods is not helpful any time but especially now.
- I am prioritizing my sleep aiming for 8 consecutive hours of quality sleep every night. Sleep is the time when our brains “take out the trash” and our bodies find healing and restoration.
Remember, screen time can mess with melatonin production which impacts your circadian rhyme. Having a relaxing evening routine that does not include electronics is best to help set you up for a good night’s sleep.
- I am prioritizing my movement. In addition to my usual workouts, I am also upping my slow and deliberate exercise like stretching, yoga, and walking. When the weather is cooperative, I plan to walk outside as much as possible for the added benefits of fresh air and sunshine.
While still providing health benefits, this type of movement can also calm your nervous system by not increasing the stress on the body that vigorous exercise can promote.
Speaking of stress….
- I am prioritizing my stress management. This is a tough one for me not just in the current situation but in general. I never ‘feel’ stressed in the way I imagine stress to look like – a crazed, caffeinated, panicey, erratic mood. Yet watch the news long enough and my thoughts begin to race to the worst of the worst, and I begin to mentally strategize and plan. My brain becomes a real domesday machine!
I have come to know these racing thoughts as my stress telltale – that blackhole of fear! I know my body is listening to these thoughts and readying for a fight that is not inline with my current situation. A constant supply of cortisol not only steals benefit from the other immune supporting measures I’m taking, it also continues to weaken my immune system by keeping it distracted from the potential of real threats.
- Another opportunity from this urgent situation is to practice and keep stress reduction as an important part of my marvelous midlife! Remember, in midlife, our adrenal glands are more important than ever at keeping all our hormones balanced. If they are constantly being used to produce stress hormones, those balancing benefits fall away. Especially now I am:
- Being meticulously mindful about what I watch and listen to. Not only am I minimizing how much I watch the news and am on social media, I am intentionally inputting funny and uplifting ideas and information. I want to be particularly diligent with these affronts later in the day in order to fill my mind with hope and peace not spark my tinderbox of fear near bedtime.
- Adding layers of positive meditation music to my usual quiet morning coffee time. This particular YouTube music seems to have a distinct rhythm that I find very soothing. I can easily sync my breathing with it which feels very calming. YouTube is full of free meditation background music like this and has been very helpful to me as part of a relaxing nighttime routine as well.
- It appears that the easiest and best way to not only avoid the current coronavirus but also to stop its spread is to stay at home. The opportunities of staying at home are plentiful but often require a bit of a mindset shift. Often tagged as a loss of freedom and inconvenient, the excuse to stay home can have many benefits. I am looking at this sequestering as an opportunity to:
- Take advantage of my husband being required to work from home as an incentive to cook and make healthy meal options for us both. So often through the week dinner is the only meal we eat together. Knowing that he will be home to eat throughout the day helps motivate me to create more healthy choices for us both.
- Create a puzzle and game table area. While we both will be productively on our computers a lot, it is important to give our eyes and minds a break. We occasionally play games like scrabble to mix up our evenings and weekends, but now is a great opportunity to make a space that will hopefully be used more often.
- As I mentioned above, I am going to prioritize additional gentle movement. One advantage to being at home more is having more time to walk. Walking is one of those things I don’t make the time to include as much as I know I should. With a treadmill and the promise of some springlike weather (fingers crossed) the opportunity for this type of mindful movement is abundant.
- Cleaning and decluttering my house. Cleaning and organizing help me feel a sense of control, while also making a space that feels more welcoming to stay in. I don’t normally take enough time to do these things, but I sure feel better when they are done. Without the distractions of leaving, I am focusing on making my home feel more inviting. Plus because I was cleaning I found the quote above that started my mental shift and this email note! Who knows what other nuggets may surface.
And speaking of mental shifts…
- One last opportunity of this urgent time is a shift towards gratitude. Let’s recognize not only the words we are hearing, but also the language we are using and see if we can be ever watchful for not only the things we have to be grateful for, but also the goodness that will come from this time.
Words have power and immediately affect how we and others feel as well as react. These next few weeks will undoubtedly alter our routines, but what if that is a good thing? Instead of looking at all that has been cancelled, postponed or otherwise re-arranged, why not look for the value such an unexpected ‘timeout’ might bring?
Remember the human mind has a natural bend toward the negative. By recalling the worst and being quick to prepare for it, this bias has kept us safe in the past. While I’m not suggesting a Polly Anna, rose-colored glasses, lalala, fingers in my ears, everything is wonderful approach, altering our points of view will not only make a scary situation more tolerable, it will move the needle of our health and wellness towards vibrance and resiliency.
Fear is a powerful motivator. Yet out of balance it has the capacity to stagnate and even cripple. Our marvelousness has more to do with how we are able to wisely choose a mindset of growth….learning, and then choosing differently than we might have in the past.
Here are a few articles if you want to learn more.
How Stress Affects the Immune System Using mind-body therapies to keep stress from making us sick.
Nighttime Computer Users May Lose Sleep
