What Covid-19 is teaching me: FREEDOM
When I knew that I could no longer practice for at least 3 months, I saw the time before me as a valuable opportunity to grow and deepen in awareness.
What was this extraordinary time teaching me? What was it teaching humanity?
The first thing that struck me that I will hold close as we begin the transition into this brave new world is that we globally chose to value life over and above economics, politics and consumerism. This is no small matter. We chose to shut the machine down but for essential maintenance. We as a species chose to risk, serve and rescue one another.
With time to contemplate amidst the swirling changes of a crisis, I have recognised and affirmed what is most valuable to me.
I have distilled these musings into four qualities:
FREEDOM
HOME
HEALTH
CONNECTION
This particular post will explore what I am learning about FREEDOM.
FREEDOM
I hold the belief that it is our drive for freedom that is humanity's greatest motivator.
The pandemic bought to stark consciousness these freedoms.
We were in a state of lockdown. We live with restrictions we haven't needed to think of before.
We have had to live apart from our personal circle.
Our freedom of movement has been curtailed.
The simple act of reaching out and touching someone now needs to be a considered risk response.
Some of us have not been able to do the work that gave us financial freedoms as well as meaning and purpose.
But what the pandemic has bought to light for me is the FREEDOM to CHOOSE my ATTITUDE.
I have learnt to cultivate ways of looking at the glass not just half full but brimming over with potential.
Yes, constricting, limiting catastrophic anxiety has risen in me.
I have had to face the fact that the hands on treatments I offer, although they benefit people in so many amazing ways, are not a viable practice during a pandemic.
I have been faced with some real survival threats to my finances and watched my precious buffers and savings dwindle.
I have had to grieve the realisation that this work that brings purpose and the means to support myself may be seen as an unnecessary risk to some people.
And, in a state of crisis these feelings of overwhelming panic will arise. They are essential to our survival. They call to be experienced in all their potency. They need to be moved through the body. The beliefs, the fears given a voice. They ask to be listened to because they will give you the direction you have lost when all around you is changing.
So, I give these feelings Freedom.
With faith and courage, I have welcomed all the feelings in, allowing them to guide me towards choices that enabled me to thrive.
Early on, I chose not to tune into inflammatory news broadcasts, doom and gloom feeds on my social networks, conspiracy theories, endless postulations about how it all happened or the daily death toll.
I chose to put my attention and energy into theories and practices that would be uplifting, well balanced and reasonable in outlook and would add value to my life and speak of a brave new world centred in valuing all life above all else.
Relating to the Covid-19 pandemic, I found an excellent interview with a Dr Zach that did a lot to allay my fears and find a way through all the pandemic panic.
This interview embraces a wholistic, systems based, long term look (both past and futrue) at the pandemic and affirmed for me what I was intuitively sensing. I highly recommend it and the last 10 minutes will rock your world.
It enabled me to make further well considered and healthy choices about how I wanted to live with Covid-19 and beyond.
I have also delved into several docuseries , namely:
They both examine the efficacy and science behind more wholistic systems based practices of health that have given me more confidence in my world view as a means of creating a kinder humanity.
The pandemic has also bought to light the freedoms that my status as a white, middle class person living in the UK gives me. I know that this status comes with privaledges that other people lack.
People have been confined to small flats, often sharing these cramped spaces with little access to green spaces.
Domestic violence has escalated and the Black Lives Matter Movement has clearly shown me where the cracks in our humanity lie.
We need to consider the brutal truth that our consumer society has forced people to return to work because of economics whilst risking their lives and those of their loved ones.
The pandemic has bought into stark clarity the plight of our Essential Workers and how little our financial systems value their work and service to maintaining our quality of life.
I don't know about you, but wherever I look, I cannot look away at the gross injustices of our current human systems.
Covid19 has made us look! It has exposed our weaknesses and will continue to do so until we clean up our act.
Now we need to ask ourselves: Where do we go from here?
We have the FREEDOM to CHOOSE.
I have witnessed so many reactions and responses to this crisis:
Some believe that that this experience is a hoax.
Some are grieving not only the loss of dear ones, but also not being with them in their dying moments or settling their bones to rest in an honourable way.
Some are terrified of stepping outside their homes or recoil at the risk of human touch.
Some throw all caution to the wind, believing that with sheer will alone they can return to life as it was.
Some are waiting to be rescued by the promise of a vaccine.
Some are rescuing themselves by arming themselves with as many self care practices and suppliments as possible.
Everyone has a BIG STORY to tell. These stories must be told. They must be heard. ..and they all call for a response that recognises and values CHANGE.
This is a BIG MOMENT in the history of our humanity. Whether you like it or not, we have been transformed by it.
How we choose to move forward, individually and collectively, will redefine our humanity.
What is the humanity you want to create?
How do you choose to be in the world?