An Insight Into Corona

Let’s talk about the white elephant in the room. Except this white elephant is different because everyone is talking about it….the virus. Clearly, I am no expert on viruses, pandemics or epidemiology. However, in a weird kind of a way, it would be weird if I just did another podcast and not even acknowledge it.

So, this situation sucks. It sucks for all of us. For some it sucks a lot more than for others. It is a difficult situation that is bringing out the worst and best in people. Extreme situations bring out the extreme in people. In extreme situations the masks falI away and we see the truth of people’s characters. For some of us its more kindness and courtesy, for others it is scarcity mindset on crack, for some of us it is an opportunity for deeper introspection, for others it fulfils their addiction to drama, for some of us it is an opportunity be an example of what we want to see more of in our world.

Just a couple of days ago I went for a run with a few of my running friends. There was a delicate layer of vulnerability in the air. It was actually beautiful. It was a Sunday morning, and we were running around our local river. Cyclists, runners and walkers alike seemed so much kinder to each other and more courteous to each other. People were actually greeting each other good morning, and acknowledging the beautific morning we were all enjoying.

I thought maybe it was just me, but others were commenting about how nice everyone was being. It was a delight, it was beautiful. It was like a another level of gratitude that we are well, we can do this and that we are all doing this together.

In the meantime, there are many who are smothered by the blanket of fear. Personally, I have felt uncertainty, vulnerability and a mild fear in the last week or so. I have chosen to become my own student of human behaviour. Doing my best to observe all the thoughts my ego is throwing onto the screen of my mind.

Some of those thoughts are ridiculous, some are tempted to buy into the fear and some are downright funny. I was told a long time ago that 95% of this journey is awareness. If you have been following any of my work, you will know, that how we generate emotions and how we use emotions rests at the core of my emotional fitness work.

We can choose whether to buy into the fear and starve others so we can hoard for our own nest. We can choose to calm the farm and try our best to put things into some kind of perspective. The health of our perspective is inspired by what we make things mean. What we make things mean influences our emotions and how we feel.

Our emotions don’t respond to facts. Our emotions respond to our perceptions of the facts. Our perceptions are influenced directly by what we focus on. What we focus gone we then derive a meaning from, and that meaning we have made induces a flavour of emotion.

The challenge we have right now is that everything in relation to this virus is changing every day, in some cases almost by the hour. This focus point, choice point and perception point will direct our emotions. Our perceptions are influenced by the meaning we give things. Perhaps very soon, for a lot of us, we will find ourselves with more time than we normally would have.

The question is…what will you do with this opportunity. Will we continue to exacerbate our fear by focusing on the array of factors that are completely beyond our control? I mean we could easily spend every waking minute scouring the internet for all the facts and made up ‘facts’ of what is going on. This is a choice point, a focus point, a perception point which completely colours and flavours our emotional range.

Remember our experience of our own realities is completely affected by how we feel about it. Same physical environment, same physical location same physical people but completely different experience. For example, I remember many years ago when my grandfather passed away after a long episode of Alzheimer's and bowel cancer combined. This was truly horrendously confusing for my grandfather and for those around him. It was a truly very difficult time for him and his direct family.

I remember many nights crying at what was happening. This was a very loud and clear demonstration of how vulnerable we all can be. The day of his funeral everything slowed down and at the same time was very quick. The church was next door to my house, my home, my happy place. Yet because of the significant shift in focus, in perception, in meaning, that day my happy place was a completely different experience. It was a completely different world. Nothing changed except for my perception of it.

The emotion that filled me that day completely altered the flavour and colour of my reality. With awareness we realise that there is a gift in everything we experience. One day, not yet, but one day we will realise that this virus didn’t happen to us, it happened for us. At the risk of sounding all “platitudenly” I believe on some level we all know this truly.

The awareness that all that had changed was my perception. Every ounce of the physical environment was the same. Awareness of how we generate our experiences empowers us to influence how we can change the way we look at something. As Dr Wayne Dyer used to say, if you change the way you look at things, then what you look at changes.

My grandfather’s passing, later on, gave me some great gifts. It gave me the gift of seeing that the little things that would bother me or annoy me mattered less or didn’t even matter at all. Suddenly what mattered most became abundantly clear. The importance of telling the people that we love them, but in a very real caring way. My future took on a different meaning. There was an expanded deeper awareness of the importance of not only taking care of our bodies but just as importantly our spirit. Our spirit is affected by the company we keep, which in turn affects what we talk about and think about most of the time.

My order and value of priorities became clearer. There were blessed opportunities to introspect and revalue my place in the world. That this world is not for the taking and getting, but it is for the giving and enjoyment of experience.

It seems highly likely that you and I will find ourselves in pause mode from our daily grinds, pursuits or even pressures. What opportunities will we connect with? Personally, it gives me more time with my sons, with my wife (heaven help her!) and also for myself.

It provides an opportunity to spend some quality time to work on aspects of my business which need attention. It perhaps will be for a lot of us an opportunity to become even more aware of the things we may have taken for granted and things that we have more time to be grateful and appreciative for.

This situation like everything else will pass. It will be contained, it will be resolved and new truths about our world will be awakened, revealed and discovered. The uncertainty for us all, is that we don’t know how long this will take. One of the best remedies for dealing with uncertainty is by connecting with our need for certainty. One of the great ways of doing this is allowing ourselves to discover new or old activities we can immerse in.

This is a phenomenal opportunity to take a deep dive in exploring and discovering a hobby that sings to our soul. Something that attunes to our natural strengths, something that gives us a sense of flow.

“Flow is experienced when the challenges posed by an activity or goal are balanced with the skills that one brings to it. This generates an unconstrained sense of time and intense engagement in the activity or pursuit of the goal.” (Mihayli Csikszentmihalyi).   

Finally, and most importantly, do know that we are all in this together, on many levels. On the level of our physical, spiritual, emotional and financial wellbeing. This is an opportunity to introspect on what matters most, what matters least. This is also a great opportunity to go on a gratitude rampage. Yes this is bad, but this could be a lot worse….just ask my late grandfather who literally fought in the battlefields of world war 2. He saw things that defy imagination.

Ask the individual who is 24/7 on a ventilator fighting this virus.

Remember the power of negative visualisation, there is always someone worse off and yes, things could be a lot worse. For now, for most of us, this is a disruption. There is no point wasting energy effort and time trying to work out what this will mean, because we at this point, we know so little.

This is an amazing opportunity for humanity to ooze in more compassion, deeper care and a kinder way of being with each other. We can choose patience or we can choose worry. Either way, it is a perception, it is a choice and this flavours every nook and cranny of our experience. 

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