How to Survive the Covid19 Crisis Mentally and Emotionally

The 5 Things NOT to do during the CV19 Crisis - and 2 that you should do!

Let's all take a deep breath and hold it for 10 seconds.  Now release and take a sip of water.  You have just accomplished three important tasks with little effort.  A) You held your breath for 10 seconds without coughing, a sign there is no Covid19 in your lungs; (B) You drank water which is good for keeping the mouth healthy and preventing CV19 from moving into your lungs; and most importantly, C)  You calmed down.

The best thing we can do for ourselves is to remain calm.  The actions we take are important to our wellbeing.  We can prepare for the best possible outcome or the worst possible outcome.  Since we have NO idea what is coming next, let's just chill, prepare for the best, and make today as joy-filled as possible. 

That doesn't mean ignore the crisis.  It means prepare sensibly; think positively, and live calmly.  If you avoid doing these 5 things, you may just make it through this without breaking down.

1.  Don't: Stockpile Toilet Paper.  

A clear sign of unclear thinking.  A clear sign of irrational panic.  Plus you know your friends are talking about you! There is plenty of toilet paper in the stores and failing that there is your garden hose!

2.  Don't: Think of the Negatives.  

Don't worry about how the rent will get paid or what will happen to your job.  Don't think about what will happen if you catch it.  Don't freak out about a post-apocalyptic world.  Stay positive.  This too shall pass.

3.  Don't: Scare your kids.  

We want them to be cautious and careful, but filling their heads with what could happen if they catch it, is like telling them the monsters under their bed are angry with them. What scares us often scares them.  Teach don't terrify.

4. Don't: Lock yourself away.  

For goodness sakes open some windows.  You need fresh air.  You need sunshine.  Don't deny yourself some outdoor times, it is as important to maintaining good health as washing your hands.

5.  Stop watching the news.  

This is not the haunted house at an amusement park you don't have to spend the day scaring yourself with all the new - and recycled - news stories.  Turn off the 24-hour doom and gloom and watch a funny movie.  All bad and nothing good destroys your peace of mind.

Remember to: 

1.  Prepare for a normal life, not the apocalypse.  Try to keep your routine as close to normal as possible.

2.  Use the newfound free time to work on a hobby or learn a new skill.  

When this is all over - and it will be - you don't want the memories of the experience to give you post-traumatic stress disease (PTSD)  A strong positive mindset now will keep you healthy for the future. 

HOW TO MAKE THE BEST OF "SHELTERING IN PLACE" DURING CV19 DRAMA

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.
Michael McGriffy M.D.

10 THINGS TO DO WHILE WE PROTECT OURSELVES FROM THE SPREAD OF CV19!

For the health and safety of ourselves, our families and our friends, we are all remaining behind closed doors during this time to help prevent the spread of the deadly CV19.  But this doesn't mean we must cower in fear or die from boredom.  We are not only "At Crisis" but we are also "At Opportunity".  If we choose to think of this from the positive, we can turn this sad challenge into a great opportunity.

1.  Write that book!  Yes, we know.  "One day" you'll get to it, but work, meetings, events have all gotten in the way.  Well, now you are pacing the halls in utter boredom with cabin fever, so there is no time like the present to begin the greatest novel of all times.

2.  Take those classes.  Skillshare, Udemy, YouTube and a host of other platforms have free and cheap classes.  Want to learn Social Media, how to use your camera? Whatever the skill you've been meaning to acquire, you now have the time to make it happen.

3.  Have fun with new recipes.  I personally am not a cook, but recently I adopted a vegan diet and I'm learning about meal planning and nutrition.  I'm also experimenting with recipes.  What else can I do?  I mean, I'm home and I have the time.  By the time we emerge from our "isolation tanks", I'll be a world-class chef.  Okay, maybe not a world-class chef, but at least my neighbors won't have to worry I'll start a fire (again).

4.  If you have kids, now is the time to enjoy some family playtime.  They have these things called "Board Games".  They were out before video games and they can be lots of fun.  If you have young kids, I'm sure they've never seen one, and you could revisit your childhood while having lots of laughs and quality family time.

5. Clean out your closets.  You may not be able to get Goodwill to come by yet to pick up your donations, but wouldn't it feel great to sort through and organize a closet?  Bag everything up and put it in an out of the way spot so when normal life begins again you can have it all hauled out.

6.  Read. Read. Read.  If you're like me, you have a ton of books you plan to read "someday".  Well now is the moment.  Make a cup of hot tea curl up on the sofa and open a book.  Enjoy the opportunity to read uninterrupted by your Metro stop or the end of the lunch hour.

 

7. Detox bath.  Yes, indeed this is one of my favorites.  A hot bath with Lavender Bath Salts, Epsom Salts, Ground Ginger (in a tea ball so it doesn't get in your drain), and baking soda is luxurious.  It pulls the toxins and the stress from the body.  You can Google recipes for measurements and varieties.

8. Start a Journal.  You are home, but you are healthy.  You are bored, but you are blessed.  Start a Gratitude Journal and writing in it each morning.  Share your moods, your worries, your concerns, but begin and end with your gratitude.  Times may be chaotic right now, but if we can hang on to gratitude, there is no room for fear and worry.

Remain flexible, life is forever changing

Recalculate, Refuel and Renew - Staying on the Path to your Dreams

"Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination, and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe." Gail Devers

Recalculate your Path, Refuel your Spirit and Renew your Journey

I woke this morning from a dream with a powerful message.  I was walking across the desert in the direction of my dreams and I was running very low on water.  I knew that if I continued along my path I would quickly run out, dying of dehydration before reaching my destination.  I also knew that I had enough to make it to a nearby oasis if I simply changed course at this moment.  The thought of getting off course felt more like failure than survival.  Frozen with indecision I simply stood there knowing that moving forward would kill me, but so would standing still.

Sometimes to reach our goals we must change the path we take, not the dream we desire.  Sometimes we must deviate to restock our resources, nourish our-Selves and then return to the journey even though it's along a different path. 

There are many of us struggling right now with the decision to go for our dreams with all the challenges and unknowns, or to settle for the safe lane of life. 

There are others who never set out.  We stare at the horizon in curious wonder our dreams becoming regrets as we age.  Some of us begin, but the effort is more than we imagined so we scurry back to the safe lane, refusing to look toward the horizon again because we feel we dreamed too big and failed.  We spend the rest of our lives living small with our passion buried in us.

You may find it necessary to change your path, but be careful not to settle for the Oasis.  It appears to have all we need.  We are comfortable and replenished.  We feel we could stay there forever.  But the Oasis will quickly become a mirage, evaporating before our eyes leaving us with only our unrealized dreams. 

Before the mirage evaporates we must take action.  We cannot go back to what we had and we can’t decide if we should move forward.  Remaining at the Oasis means we have not moved our-Selves, we have only moved the safe lane.  Our dreams while closer, are still just beyond the horizon.

When you find yourself struggling in the desert, switch directions.  Head for the Oasis, stock up your resources, replenish your spirit then get moving again. 

When you are on the journey toward your dreams, you face many challenges that make you think of quitting.  The key is to keep moving, recalculating the path for the purpose of your survival and the survival of your dream.  

Rebuild resources, regain strength of purpose, recalculate the road to your dreams, and return to the journey. 

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."  Henry David Thoreau

To Achieve Authentic Change Work with the Best

Christian Bryan, Personal Trainer (photo from FitnessSF.com)

"To lead people, walk behind them"  Lao Tzu

Christian Bryan: Authentic Leader

In February 2015, I began a serious journey of personal transformation.  I recognized that in order to achieve Authentic Change I had to work hard and I needed the right leadership to get me there.  I hired a writing coach so I could work on my publications, and I hired a personal trainer so I could work on me. 

I got very lucky when I joined FitnessSF's Fillmore location.  At the age of 60 I now feel a certain sense of freedom.  Maybe it was not such much because of my age as it is my desire to finally achieve my dreams. Whatever my motivation I shared with the membership representative all I planned to accomplish.  

"Leadership is the capacity to translate vision into reality" - Warren Bennis

As I talked about my goals - lose 170 pounds, train for a triathlon and run the Paris Marathon - the rep waved in a young man whose smile was the first thing you see. He listened to my goals with genuine interest and grew excited for me.  He was enthusiastic about taking the journey with me.  He inspired me, not with sales jargon and BS, but with an authentic desire to be a part of my success.  

That was the day I met my trainer Christian Bryan.  He personifies the message of Lao Tzu - he leads from behind giving me confidence and motivating me to push harder and further for myself.  

Christian is on a path to greatness and I am fortunate to be a member of his following.  His has an impressive list of certifications among his credentials.  He specializes in working with Seniors and those like myself who are fighting obesity. 

Christian works with me in a very Zen-like manner, calmly demonstrating the movements and inspiring me to go further than I thought.  

Because of him I have gone from being unable to walk a block to not only walking but almost running up stairs!  In 2016 I will complete a Triathlon and he will be there to cheer me on I know.  In 2017 I will run the Paris Marathon and I plan to have Christian there with me as well.  

If you are lucky enough to live in San Francisco and/or are already a member of FitnessSF, I strongly recommend you signup with Christian.  

While I do enjoy my membership there, this is not a plug for the fitness center, but a true desire to recognize and honor this man who has helped me change myself for the better and put me on the path to Authentic Change and Transformation.  

In the words of my idol Tina Turner, Christian Bryan is "Simply The Best"!

When the Student is Ready the Teacher Appears

When we open ourselves to understanding, the lessons we seek appear.  Three years ago I started this blog with all the enthusiasm and excitement we love to give to new beginnings.  But in a very short time that energy seemed to die away, lost it seemed under the crush of everyday life.

It took me a couple of years to realize that what I thought was lost had actually been occurring in the background.  The mindfulness of change was missing, but the deep personal desire to grow was actively working at a level of unconsciousness. 

We think that once we decide to make changes in our lives they will happen immediately.  We think we will wake in the morning completely different, all the hard work done.  In truth, authentic change begins as a whisper in our souls.  Somewhere at the pit of our Being we begin to desire change and that creates change to small for us to measure.  Like the change of day to night or summer to fall, we don’t feel the movement of time until enough change has occurred to make us aware.  “Oh, wow, it’s getting dark, didn’t realize how late it was”, or “Weather is starting to cool lately, fall is on the way.” 

In the same way, we awaken within ourselves; realizing one day all the small changes that had been occurring preparing us for now.  As we change we grow and the levels of personal transformation we thought would be immediate begin to unfold within us.  One of my favorite quotes is:  “When the student is ready the teacher appears.”  We are truly students of life, on a journey to enlightenment.  When we open ourselves up to the knowledge, we realize that life is our teacher. 

We begin to see experiences differently as our “ah-ha” moments come more frequently.  We observe others doing the things we so desperately wish to change within ourselves and we are able to see, without judgement, what we need to do.  The teacher whispers to our soul and the message rises to our consciousness and changes us forever. 

Look at a flower.  It doesn’t shoot from the ground the moment we plant the seeds, No it first digs deep developing its roots so that as it emerges into the light it is strong and capable of receiving nourishment.  Slowly a tiny little leaf-like section becomes a bud, little by little growing and unfolding until the flower it was meant to be emerges. The caterpillar becomes the butterfly, tadpoles become frogs – all of life transforms.  I keep this in mind as I walk my life’s journey remembering that I have not just started to transform but I have been in the process of transformation every day of my life.

When I close my eyes in meditation and breathe deeply the teacher appears and I begin to uncover and discover my purpose and my path. So be okay with small victories and minute changes.  Walk your path with joy, knowing your teacher is present and each day whether you recognize it or not you are transforming. 

A Day for Changing Our Lives

I woke this morning filled with gratitude and thanks for all that is my life.  I am thankful for for everything and everybody in my life.  I am most thankful for the work I've been accomplishing on my SELF.   I have been working for years on my SELF.  I was lost.  I was lost in what I thought I should be doing - the grown up stuff of responsibility and serious application of oneself to important things.  I was not happy.  I could not understand why I was unable to reconcile my life and my dreams and find a way for them to blend as one.  I know I am not alone in my need and desire to be my authentic self.

We have all gone on the diet, started the gym, signed up for the French class, all for the purpose of creating the positive changes in our life we want to embrace.  But it was hard.  Friends, family, work, and our own attachment to Self-defeating habits, something always pulled us off purpose.

When I started keeping a journal about 25 years ago, I would periodically go back and read entries from the same date, but years before.  I realized I was stuck in a parttern of wanting, but not realizing, the change I so desired in my life. 

There was a positive side to these visits back in time as well.  Finding those entries where I promised myself I would change and I did.  Things that were hard like relocating to San Francisco, leaving Chicago for the first time in my life to venture into the unknown.  I go back and read how afraid and excited I was then.  Now 25 years later my life in San Francisco is authentic. 

That's what authentic change is about.  Making a change, living through the difficult first moments of experiencing a new habit, city, job....until it is familiar, natural, comfortable.  That is what we look for when we work to change ourSELVES.  Moving from the fear to the familiar.  Moving from unknown possibilities to a life of accomplishments.  This is a life process.  We are constantly evolving, growing and transforming.  Sometimes we make the process difficult by refusing to let go of the small behaviors that affect the bigger goal.  The process of authentic change forces us to look at all the pieces of our SELF.  Our attitudes, relationships with others and ourselves, our belief system, likes and dislikes every emotion we have falls under the microscope of change.

Authentic change requires us to dig deep and fully examine our lives and ourselves.  You can't paint a room without washing the walls, scrapping off the old paint and preparing it for the new.  You can't change your life with a blanket declaration to make a change without washing away the old believes, scrapping away hard to relinquish habits and preparing ourself for the change.

I am in the process of achieving authentic change and transforming my life. The last years have been difficult for me.  I thought my dreams have been deferred by the economic crisis, but I have learned a valuable lesson.  My dreams have been deferred by my belief that an economic crisis could stop them.

It's important for all of us to stop and take stock of where we are and what we what in our lives.  Work, family and other obligations can pull us from our dreams.  Time slips away and we gain weight, waking one morning to the realization that we are destroying our health.  OR, like I recently did, taking a job you HATE because is will help relieve some but not all of the financial pressure you're under.  We get so busy chasing a means to survive, we stop chasing the dream.  We are so business trying to live the way society thinks we should AND pursue our dream we wonder how the dream got lost.  Six in one hand, Half dozen in the other.  If either way you still have to figure out how to pay the rent, buy food and survive, then why not do it on the path to your dream?  

I am always encouraged by people who have successfully achieved authentic change.  The one trait they all have is the ability to focus on the goal.  They act as if they have already achieved the goal until its no longer acting but authentic. 

I decided to start this blog when it is exactly 100 days to my 56th birthday.  Fast forward 2 years years and its now 89 days until by 58th birthday.  I'm learned a lot, but the one thing I learned the most is I was trying to live my dream beside my life instead of as my life.  I felt that first I must establish an income and security then I can dream.  I have learned that my dream is my life as as long I as push it aside in pursuit of other things I will never be truly happy or fulfilled.  In the past two months I have been on the path of my dream.  I wake everyday and dedicated my life to my writing and my SELF then take on whatever work fits that schedule.  I've streamlined my material world and feel much freer living simply.  

I invite you to join me on this new "Journey of 100 days" to Authentic Change and Transformation.  Today we ACT and commit to the change we desire in our lives.  For the next 100 days we will focus on our goals.  Write down what you want to accomplish by March 16, 2013 and lets work together on our dreams.  I'm looking foward to hearing from you.  I'm looking forward to sharing with you. 

Happy Transformation!

"Things do not change, we change" Henry David Thoreau