1 – There is a lot going on in the world at the moment, you don’t need me to tell you that, you also don’t need me to list them here. It is a lot for our brain to sift through, understand the messaging, is this something we need to act on, to flee from, to get up and fight for?
2 – It could be very easy to just turn everything off, and put our head in the sand, but that doesn’t serve us or our community around us either. The key is to finding our way to navigate through it.
3 – I feel compassion is really key here, its not just a lot going on in the world, every day life has got so packed and busy these days, that having compassion for what we are carrying is key. It may feel like sometimes we can’t even think what is for dinner, and it may feel like because we can’t suss out that every day task, that we are falling apart. When working with people and helping them to get really clear on all their boxes, all the different things they are holding at that time, it can help us get a bit of a reality check. Sure we may have struggled with working out what was for dinner, but right now we are juggling a whole load of stuff at the moment, and this was the thing that felt like it broke us.
4 – The supermarket trip can lead us to a state of hyperarousal where we try and keep going and are in that fight or fight place, or sometimes we go in to the hypoarousal, the freeze space. “I just can’t.” Again, this requires care and compassion (If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll know the difference between this and procrastination!)
5 – If the world has got on top of us, it can very much take us in to a place of freeze, of feeling like we can’t make a difference, it is all futile, what’s the point. But actually these are the times, when the smallest of steps, gestures or offers, can make a real difference. Maybe we can’t do anything about a war, or about an injustice that is happening in our world, but we always have that choice as to whether we come from a place of fear or love, what are some of the small steps that we can take, that can make a difference for the world around us.
6 – In his book, seven habits of highly effective people, Stephen Covey looked at the things that we can’t control, the things we can influence, and the things we can very much control. We can get pulled pillar to post if we allow ourselves to focus on the things we can’t control. It can be super triggering and super frustrating.
7 – Focusing on the things we can influence and play a part in, as well as the things we can directly control, means that we are sending that message back to our brain that we are safe, we are taking action, there are steps we can take.
8 – I am a firm believer in tiny steps, the more tiny steps we take, the more acknowleding, celebrating, dopamine hits and evidence that we are moving forward on our path. Don’t feel that moving through these times has to be grand gestures or big changes. See what a difference the small steps can take.
9 – Victor Frankl who wrote about his experiences in the concentration camps, wrote at length about how mindset played out for him in there, how he saw how people who struggled to get their mindset to where it needed to be to get through such horrific conditions, were not able to make it. If we can work with our mind, whether that is to come from a place of love, to see the gold in the chaos, to decide what we focus on, to reassure ourselves that we are safe, then small step by small step, then that is going to make a difference in the world.
10 – We all have gifts for this world, when we are stuck, when we are not showing up, when we are not living to our authentic self, people are missing out. People and communities around us are missing out on what we have to offer. We are letting fear win. This isn’t about giving yourself another stick to beat yourself up with. This is a request that in this crazy world, there are gold moments in the chaos, and recognising you are absolutely one of them, and maybe it is, in whatever tiny way you can to begin with, time to shine again.
