THE MINDFUL PATH THROUGH MASS HYSTERIA

Obviously there is a lot going on in the world right now surrounding the coronavirus, and there appears to be a lot of fear, anxiety, and tension around the unknown. It can feel overwhelming and scary, and yet there is a way to move through it all with a bit more trust and calm presence.

I think of this time as a higher call to slow down. I know when I got really sick six years ago, I was forced to slow down. My life has basically been very slow and mostly homebound for the past six years, and so I can speak from a little experience. This is almost like a global sickness, and so instead of becoming more fearful, maybe we can all just slow down and be for a bit. It’s ok to not do a whole lot right now.

I understand that it’s such a drastic shift in lifestyle. Aside from the anxiety, boredom and possibly a sense of hopelessness and depression can set in. Excessive worry about the future starts to cloud our minds. The inability to do the things we want to do may lead to anger and even rage. So, how do we allow these ever changing emotions and feeling states to change without being overcome to immediately react? How do we use these feelings to become more present and respond with more wisdom and clarity?

We start where we’re at. The mindful approach starts by looking at direct experience within and around us. In any moment, we can move from the stories of chaos in the mind to the truth of what is actually happening. What do we feel in the body right now? What sounds do we hear right now? What can we see in this moment? This is the only truth we can know.

Mindfulness also creates space in our lives. I always use the analogy of how mindfulness makes us bigger than our challenges by imagining a small glass of water where a tablespoon of salt is poured in. The water would taste awful and be very hard to swallow. Now imagine this same tablespoon of salt in a large freshwater lake. We wouldn’t even be able to taste it.

Mindfulness moves us from the small glass where everything seems too hard to swallow to the large freshwater lake where it has much less negative impact. We start to become aware of thoughts and emotions as passing experiences and have much more space around it all with much less attachment.

As we move out of the stories of our minds and into the truth of the moment, we may start to be able to see different perspectives. I know the state of the world is challenging right now, and it’s awful to think of lives being lost to this virus. We can’t deny the individual perspective on this, and yet, at the same time, we can begin to see bigger perspectives.

If we imagine this from the Earth’s perspective, with less air travel and car travel, the Earth gets a reprieve. Nature has a way of finding its balance, and so can we trust that this is one of those times of seeking global balance? Sometimes there needs to be a bit of disharmony for harmony to arise.

It is difficult to trust when we’re inundated with fear from social media and the news, so it’s important to attempt to be a wise consumer of the media. Understanding that not everything we read is the absolute truth and not allowing reading the news to take up our day and our energy is quite important right now. Maybe we find one reputable source and keep ourselves well informed but not all-consumed by the news. Find five minutes to dedicate to staying up to date, but then allow the rest of our day to be dedicated to living life moment by moment.

As we begin to give more of our attention and energy to the present moment, we may start to see a bit more clearly. I heard from a dear friend in NY who said ammo and weapons are being bought up like crazy. Why? How on earth will that help this already anxiety-ridden situation?

Instead of breeding more anxiety, with more clarity, we start to see how we’re all in this together. Instead of rushing out to buy a gun out of fear, why don’t we think about how we can help each other in any way possible?

Thich Nhat Hanh tells a story of the refugee ships out of Vietnam and how there was a lot of chaos and confusion on the ships. If one person could remain calm and clear, the likelihood of surviving the trip was much higher.

Can we be the calm that the world needs right now to move through this and grow as a planet? Can we learn to live with a bit more presence, compassion, and connection through all of this? I really hope we can, and I have great faith in the strength of the human spirit.

We just have to be present to be able to get in touch with the wisdom that lies within all of us. There’s so much goodness innate in humans, and now is the time to really tap into that and live from that place of love and compassion as opposed to the place of fear.

Here’s a quote from my daily Dalai Lama calendar which I thought was very pertinent to the state of our lives right now:

“As soon as I wake up….I remember the importance of kindness and compassion, wishing something good for others, or at least to reduce their suffering. Then I remember that everything is interrelated, the teaching of interdependence. So then I set my intention for the day: that this day should be meaningful. Meaningful means, if possible, serve and help others. If not possible, then at least not to harm others. That’s a meaningful day.”

Maybe we can adopt this definition of a meaningful day. As people are forced to stay home from work, athletics, school, and social gatherings, we can begin to make our days meaningful by looking out for each other. Each day we can wake up and ask, “how can I serve the greater good today?”

It’s a challenging shift in perspective to move from self-centered living to other-centered living, and this by no means entails we don’t tend to our own personal needs. In fact, it’s essential to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves and offering ourselves support and compassion in order to have enough to give to others.

We start by honoring how challenging this is for ourselves and bring some compassion to our own experience. From here, we can start to see that this suffering is a shared suffering and that we aren’t alone in it. We can then develop the motivation to do the best we can to be a compassionate presence in the world, toward ourselves and others!

This is a global challenge, and as with any challenge, there is always incredible potential for growth, new understanding, and a deeper happiness.

Hopefully, we can settle into this time of being instead of doing. We can spend more time with our families. We can reach out to friends, loved ones, and even strangers and ask how we can support one another. We are in this together.

I think of the saying, “Muddy water, let stand, turns clear.” Not that we don’t continue to search for answers and do all that we can to curtail the negative impact of the virus, but we don’t need to continually stir the muddy water with chaotic thoughts that drive up fear and anxiety. If we can refrain from “muddying the water” any further, we may find that this time offers us a much needed rest. As the muddy water settles, we may begin to see more clearly than we ever have been able to given the constant activity of our usual lives.

Now that the usual activity is more quiet, what might we be able to see more clearly? We actually have time to converse with our friends and families with no added agenda. We can snuggle with our children a bit longer. We can actually look others in the eye as we talk to them and see each other more clearly. We can step outside and hear the birds and the wind in the trees. We can simply slow down and be present for our lives.

In addition to mindful living, I encourage two powerful practices to help during this time. One is called “metta practice” and the other is “tonglen”. “Metta” means “loving-kindness” and “tonglen” means “giving and taking”. To practice metta, we imagine sending loving thoughts to ourselves and others. These are a few metta phrases that may serve our world right now:

May we all be filled with peace.

May we all trust in the greater good.

May we live with love and compassion in our hearts.

Tonglen is the practice of breathing in the fear, anxiety and pain in the world right now and allowing compassion to transform the energy into something like trust, calm, and peace. So we envision the difficult energy coming into our heart space, being met with compassion, and then offering to the world an antidote to the pain, like peace and trust.

So, I wish for the world more peace and calm right now. This too shall pass.

And may we all live mindfully, moment to moment, with love and compassion in our hearts.