With the COVID-19 phenomenon in full swing the world as we know it has turned on it’s axis, at least when it comes to our orientation towards work, money, and the fear that we are going to Hell in a hand-basket! So much of what we’ve focused on, and has been effortlessly available to us, is at least for a while taken out of our reach. Some of us have free time on our hands that we are happy about. Others, not so much.
So many of us are home, wondering what to do with ourselves. I hear a lot of people share that they are cleaning out their drawers, closets and refrigerators. Some people are playing games and engaging with their partners and children. Forced solitude can be a very good thing to boost our hearts’ desires while we take care of our physical bodies.
Some of us are caught up in anxiety and fear of the worst case scenarios. That’s easy, especially if the news is playing in the background and people are sharing the possibility for terrible, no-good things to happen.
It’s easy to drop into angst, anxiety and despair! It’s easy to feel oppressed and out of control. It’s easy to fall into the abysses of feeling this is HELL and there is no way out!
I got an idea! Let’s play a game! No, you don’t need cards, a board, a pencil or paper. You just need to sit comfortably or lay down all snuggled into your favorite blanket. Or you can be outside in the sunshine. All you need is to be somewhere where you are relaxed, quiet and undistracted.
First, this is the easy part: Feel what it’s like being you in the midst of this quarantine. Feel all those things I mentioned above: anxiousness, despair, hopelessness, alone, uncertainty, . . . and the list goes on. Feel the experience of constraint and loss of what we all took for granted. Feel the disappointment of giving up your work, vacation plans, and gatherings with your favorite people. Feel the weirdness of all the closings and cancellations of everything we just assumed would always be there – libraries, schools, sports events, our fellowships and religious celebrations . . . WOW! That’s a lot to be with!
As I’m writing this my heart is palpitating and I’m really uncomfortable. I don’t know about you, but it’s scary being inside me right now!
Thunderdome, the Movie
I didn’t see this movie, Thunderdome, however I can only imagine upon watching it that I’d be feeling a lot of what I’m experiencing right now with the impact of the COVID-19 virus upon us all.
In the song from the movie Thunderdome, Tina Turner sings, "We don’t need another hero. We don’t need to know the way home. All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome…. Love and compassion, their time is coming…."
Beyond the Thunderdome
Okay, the second part of our game – this is the good part.
Again, using your imagination, feel what it’s like being outside this circumstance of quarantine. For example, if you could pop yourself out of this reality of doom and gloom – the Thunderdome, and instantly find yourself in another reality, what would you feel? Imagine no longer being constrained, contained and constricted. What would that experience be like for you?
In this game, I find I have to work really hard to get myself into an imaginary state beyond the reality that is being foisted upon me.
As I imagine myself outside the Thunderdome, slowly something shifts. Some of what I feel is, safe, free, liberated. I feel trusting of those around me. I feel relaxed and hopeful. I feel playful, with a renewed sense of innocence. I’m smiling and I want to hug everyone. I want to celebrate life, joy and love!
Believing is Seeing
Our logical and skeptical reality tells us that we need to see the changes in order to believe that good things are coming. However, every spiritual and religious tradition tells us that we need to first believe it to see it. Actually, Einstein and the field of Quantum Physics champion the same principle. So, the practice of feeling the goodness of what we believe is coming, such as freedom and the reason to celebrate, assists us in believing what we can’t yet see, and will actually create the catalyst for such a paradigm shift.
Do you get what I’m saying here? We don’t need another hero. We don’t need to know our way home. We only need to feel the goodness, the light, the love and the freedom that is, now and always.
As a skeptic, you might poo-poo this, and I wouldn’t fault you one bit. My own personal inner skeptic is alive and well, too. However, I trust Einstein. I trust Buddha and Jesus. I trust all the spiritual teachers, enough to, if nothing else, bring positivity into my reality in order to offset the collective fear that doesn’t do me any good whatsoever!
I’m up for this game. How about you?
