Self-Healing, Balance & Renewal in Tough Times
A common thread in my conversations about the virus with friends, family, clients and neighbors is about how troubling it is that there doesn’t seem to be an “end point” on the horizon yet. That its impact is so pervasive, affecting all aspects of our lives. That everything feels unclear, unstable, uncertain, undefined.
We are all in this together; and yet, we each have our own set of challenges with which to contend and our own personal needs and temperaments. We are still within the battle and will be for some time. We need to find ways to go the distance ~ and to do so healthfully. Below are a few practical tips to assist with nurturing self-healing, balance and renewal:
- Remember that this is a really big deal. That you, your loved ones and all of us are going through a comprehensive and unprecedented transformation. This is entirely new for us, and we are all, sometimes ineffectively or awkwardly, doing the best we can.
- Be extra gentle, loving, patient and compassionate with both yourself and those around you. We are all feeling the intensity and strain of it ~ each in our own unique ways. It is not easy for any of us.
- Give yourself more rest and “down time.” You are changing and growing both inside and out, and your soul needs the rest. If you have a family, encourage them to rest more, too.
- Be in nature regularly. This will help with feeling more grounded, calm and centered.
- Nurture your own form of a spiritual practice, whatever that may be for you. Perhaps create more structure for yourself with it.
- Spread as much love, appreciation, gratitude, kindness and positivity as you can. This helps brighten the world and bless others, and also helps take our minds off of our worries so we can stay more balanced.
- If you have more time on your hands, think about what your dreams are or have been and see if there are steps you can take towards them. For example, is there a subject you have wanted to study; a project you’ve wanted to complete; a skill you want to develop; an online course you want to take; a product you want to create?
- Be mindful of making healthy food and exercise choices.
- Be “in the moment” as much as possible. Mindfulness not only enriches our lives; but also, helps to alleviate and transmute our inclinations to worry.
- Additionally, the Blessed Beings share this overarching Truth to help us. We may look at this time as if we are all caterpillars who have grown sufficiently to be within the chrysalis. Perhaps each at different stages of development in our progress towards achieving the color, glory and flight of a butterfly, but we are each now within the chrysalis.
My dear friend and Fiamma’s Assistant Spiritual Director, Daniel Feenix, once shared with me this beautiful analogy about butterflies when I happened to be going through a difficult time myself. I hope it will soothe and inspire you in the way it did for me at the time.
The caterpillar goes through a nearly complete transformation during its time in the chrysalis. It will emerge looking nothing like it did when it formed its cocoon. There will be only small traces of its previous form remaining.
When the caterpillars have achieved their metamorphosis, the chrysalis does not simply pop open. The butterfly must use ALL its might to gradually force itself through the tiny opening in its enclosure that it is able to create. It is the effort of the struggle itself, the blood pulsing through its body and into its wings, that when it is freed, will allow the beautiful creature to fly. We are all butterflies in the making!
