The coronavirus pandemic is revealing a lot about what work our brain still needs to do.
As I have been working with clients it is amazing how these underlying issues have always been there but this is like the perfect hotbed of circumstances to bring it all up and be in your face. And that is great, because maybe this is just the work we need to be doing right now to become the next version of ourselves.
We are either growing, being stagnant, or declining.
We are born into the human experience and I don’t know if you have noticed, but the human experience is filled with setbacks and trials.
Job 7:1-2 Does not man have hard service on earth? Are his days like those of a hired man?
Psalm 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.
Life is great 1/2 of the time, and awful 1/2 of the time. That is our experience here on Earth. That is why these circumstances of COVID#19 are a part of what goes on here. But the question remains of what will you do with it?
Will you grow? Be stagnant? Or decline?
The choice happens in your mind. The control center of everything you do in a day comes from the way you think and feel. Some of you may be just trying to feel okay right now. You may be filled with worry, doubt, fear, uncertainty, confusion, and all around sadness. And believe it or not that is okay. There are some emotions that I want to have right now because they are normal feelings during something like this. But if you stay there it may keep you stagnant and if you give into all of those emotions you may decline. You can just welcome them into your life and then choose on purpose some feelings that will get you moving to where you do want to be. Feelings like; focused, purposeful, impactful, determined, resilient.
You have been working on things either in your job, finances, personal life, relationships, etc. You might have had goals for 2020 or a vision board of your year. It would be so easy for you to throw in the towel now and decide to just get complacent with where you are and forget all about where you wanted to go. I know so often I have doubt creep into my life about my goals and with the coronavirus it is just bringing up the thought there is no way this will happen so I might as well just not try. I probably couldn’t have done it anyway. But this is where it gets good. This is where we have the opportunity to double down. In order to go all in and really focus on your goals now you would really have to get good at managing your mind and feeling your negative emotions. Two things I teach all of my clients to do.
So how do you manage your mind and use it to grow?
We don’t get stronger by doing easy things, we get stronger by doing hard things. So here is an opportunity to utilize this situation in our life right now. This is giving us an opportunity to practice skills that will make our lives more free of unnecessary suffering.
This is the skill to practice. Get really good at separating the circumstances (facts) from the thoughts.
So for some of you it would look like this.
Circumstances:
Coronavirus.
I lost my job.
I am single right now.
I am unable to see my friends right now.
I am having to cook all of my meals.
I am going to receive 1/2 of my paycheck.
I live far away from family.
I don’t have anything to do.
Thoughts:
Is ruining so many lives, it shouldn’t be happening.
I don’t know what I should do, how am I going to make it?
I wish I was married, it would make this so much easier.
It is hard to not have community and feel isolated.
I just really want it to be not so hard to eat healthy.
If I get sick, who will take care of me?
How will I make ends meet? Do I need a part time job?
I am so bored and wasting away, which I shouldn’t be doing.
Notice the circumstances are factual and you get to think about them however you want. How you think about those facts is going to be how you feel about life. So take the time to understand that these circumstances are just more opportunities for us to do our work. Write out the facts for you right now and then right out the thoughts. See if you like the thoughts or not.
Managing your mind comes in being able to decide if the thought is helpful to you. If you choose to think that coronavirus is ruining your life you feel defeated. Your brain looks to confirm that everywhere. You will find defeat all around you. You will then begin taking action from feeling defeated will look like a lot of inaction. When I feel defeated I pretty much throw in the towel and give up before there is even a fight. But maybe that thought isn’t going to get me to where I want. I want this to grow me and push me and help me to be who I am supposed to be.
My friend shared this thought with me, “It was always supposed to be this way.” That thought makes me feel like it is for me and a great opportunity to manage my mind around the circumstances that are coming from this.
Don’t use all of this as an excuse to decline and gain weight, get in debt, live in sin, and make poor choices that when we come out of all of this makes you have more of a hill to climb. Use this time as a great opportunity to decide who you want to be.
Ask yourself, where do I want to be in a few months when this is all over.
What would it look like to decline? What would it look like to be stagnant? What would it look like to grow?
Learning to manage your mind right now is an incredible lesson to learn. If you want any help with that, that is what I do. To work with me schedule a 30 minute Before & After Session, or get coached to see what it is like. I help you see areas of your mind that you can’t see and that are causing you some unnecessary suffering.
I dare you to stay in the ring right now and take the fight that is right in front of you. I know it will make you stronger if you let it and not back down from it. Believe that you can take all that this opportunity is bringing you and make something greater of it.
Listen, if I come out of this with an organized mind, organized home, great memories with my family, more gratitude for the way life was, and am picky about where I spend my time in the future. Then these months will have been so worth it!
