Categories
Mindfulness Politics of Well-Being The Spirit

Learning from those who came before

Today, I wept through about half of my morning meditation. Despite the fact that all-in-all I am holding up just fine during our period of separation, today I felt the suffering, deep in my heart. And it hurt.

I suspect this was triggered by my thinking about the abomination happening in the United States electoral system—this time in my home state, and current neighbor, Wisconsin. Watching people line up for blocks at my high school (Riverside in the link) in order to vote at one of five polling places in a city of 600,000 broke my heart.


Poll workers and voters caring for the universal body conducting an election while putting their health and their lives at risk at my high school gym.
People risking their lives to to vote at my high school.

Sadness

Then I thought about the suffering of the grocery workers, the health care workers, the delivery workers, the truck drivers, the sanitation workers. Then I remembered the best Certified Nursing Assistant in the world (at least my limited world after joint replacement surgery), Jane, and I wondered how she was holding up. After that I flashed on how the pandemic is, as always, dis-proportionally killing people of color—particularly African Americans. After that came, “what about Iran and Syria”, and “what about the millions wandering the planet looking for a home?”  Somewhere in there the tears started falling.

Anger

Along with sadness, I felt anger that the most vulnerable carry the burden for the most protected, privileged, and hateful in our world. As I was reciting the compassion mantra I wondered, “What’s the point of all this meditating? What difference will it make?”

Being

I, to my surprise ended up meditating for a full hour, which was considerably longer than my usual 15 morning minutes. Somehow I got lost in the meditation, my feelings, and the moment. I guess my experience explains one of the reasons I just keep on meditating—especially now. I can lose myself for those few moments and just “be”.

However, after I’ve just “been” where do I go and what do I do? Well, I’m a health coach, not God. I have no answers. But I do have thoughts and here are three of them.

How to act?

First, as I said last post, it is important for all of us to stay as physically and mentally healthy as possible. If we don’t stay healthy we will have difficulty taking any action and will harm our universal body.

Second, we (especially health and well-being professionals), need to learn to speak up. There are so many health and wellness videos and Zoom groups out there in social media land giving health tips for managing the physical body during a pandemic. It would be helpful if health and well-being professionals would speak to the all the facets of the body—especially the universal body. If we are all connected, as we claim we are, then it would behoove us to speak up when we see damage happening to that universal body. We can no longer just post pretty social media flower pictures. We must point out the damage done to us all when our fellows are forced to choose between their physical health and their political health or when we are fed junk science like it is the final truth. We must ask publicly, “What about the people of Iran, Syria, Mississippi, Alabama, and Wisconsin?”  If we are all connected, then we all matter and if we have multiple levels of existence, we must pay attention to all of those levels or risk becoming irrelevant.


A few timely words from Gil Scott Heron.

And third, we will all benefit if we offer compassion to all sentient beings including ourselves and our enemies. This doesn’t mean we have to like or approve of the behavior of these beings. But, we must recognize that we are all connected (even our enemies) and understand that we all suffer.  I can’t exactly tell you the deep reasons for how this works (I’ll leave this for the Buddha, Jesus, the Prophet Muhammad, Lao Tzu, Bob Marley, Richard Feynman and others who seem better able explain these things). However, I can say that by regularly offering compassion I feel better and my mind is clearer than it was before I practiced compassion. I’m better able to manage my emotions and I am better able to function in the world. And, with all that clarity, I’m better able to speak up.


A few timely words from the Bodhisattvas.
This meditation came to me from my friend Claire and was suggested by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama for managing ourselves during this pandemic. It has brought me a great deal of comfort over the last few weeks

Just three ideas

Remember everybody, this pandemic stuff is new to all of us and we’re all making it up as we go along. I suggest turning to the great teachers who have shown us that by taking a few intentional steps to better serve the common good we will, at worst, not be adding to the misery, and at best, be contributing to the alleviation of suffering in our suffering world. And we need that now.

That’s what I have today. Three simple ideas: take care, speak up, be compassionate. Think about them and report back.

Kindred Spirits Online: April 23

As we slog through this pandemic, I am still planning a Kindred Spirits online Zoom gathering for this month on April 23rd from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. It’s free and all people of loving intention are invited. I haven’t settled on a topic yet but am thinking of something around our breathe. I’ll let you know when I figure it out. Our first online gathering was very enlightening and enjoyable. It was wonderful connecting with people and sharing experiences. It’s free but you must register to attend. You can register on the Healing Ground website.

Categories
Ayurveda Politics of Well-Being Research Self-care

Together in Isolation

It’s happened. Suddenly we’re thrust into a world where reality will prevail. A world where our human arrogance doesn’t just “not help” but actually makes things more challenging. The pandemic predicted for a long time by smart and thoughtful epidemiologists is upon us.

Yesterday my writings on this amounted an epic rant —proof that despite all my efforts at mindfulness, living in the present, finding grace, and generally trying to be a good person, I still get angry—or in some situations–really pissed-off.  You can read it (or not) for a laugh or for reassurance that, yes, nothing about this situation is easy and the anger you’re feeling right now is felt by many, many people, and we all just get pissed-off sometimes.

After said epic rant, while walking at the gym, one of my favorite songs ran on my play list—it described my state well. I had to just laugh: “Make Me Wanna Holler—throw up both my hands” (Inner City Blues). [https://youtu.be/p_PxgSQ9Vf4]


What more can we say?

Then I read an excellent analysis of the pandemic and found all my opinions validated but handled in a much more rational and comprehensive manner. I slowly I started to feel less angry. Maybe my desire to be “right” trumped (I mean this as a verb, not the person!!) my need to be angry. Or maybe getting real, truthful information, delivered without a political agenda soothed my soul. Whatever the case, I have gratitude for my change of temperament. I awoke this morning not feeling angry.

If the pandemic interests you I strongly suggest you read the article that contributed to my change in attitude.

Then again, maybe my work with Vedic and Buddhist principles of well-being helped me calm down. These principles tell me that anger is a totally natural reaction to situations of the human condition. We’re human, after all, and anger is real. However, these teachings also encourage me to not get attached to my anger. By attaching to my anger,  I get paralyzed and sink deeper and deeper into despair and fear.

Opposites don’t attract (in this case)

The tough question is: How do I manage to break my attachment to anger? The Vedic/Buddhist principles tell me that applying the opposite force reduces the affects of that force. This explains how reading thoughtful and informed views of our situation calmed me down. Woa! The circle is complete (and a little profound)! “Stupid” and “unformed” makes me angry (always has) so maybe applying “smart” and “informed” opposed the anger and I started to feel better.

This makes me think I generally need to dig deeper to figure out what forces are really making me angry. I think that if I catch the these forces before the anger becomes manifest and is running wild in my system, I’ll prevent myself from spreading toxic energy to others, not unlike the behavior of Covid 19. And that is one way I can serve the universal body and promote well-being. Whew! What a difference a little focus, attention, and awareness makes.

So, what now?

My suggestion is for all of us is to stay informed about the spread of the virus and follow the recommendations from the experts. I know the truth is often difficult to hear but it is the only antidote for lies. This set of videos from (of all people) Joe Rogan, featuring Mike Osterholm, a world renowned expert on infectious diseases from the University of Minnesota, is a great place to start becoming informed. (Go to the link and youtube will show you the other portions of the interview to watch). Let’s try to stay away from uninformed, stupid, nasty, xenophobic, and hateful energy around this virus. It only feeds hate and hate feeds anger and anger feeds fear and fear feeds pandemics like nobody’s business.


These interviews with Mike Osterholm are very informative, honest, smart, and even a little funny. In his thoughtful infectious way, Osterholm is pretty witty and very thorough and knowledgeable about his subject. There are more sections of the interview available on YouTube.

Shift in perspective

As I wrestled with my own “next steps” in the current climate, I have decided to shift my health coaching delivery from an emphasis on “in person” to an emphasis on “online” sessions. This runs counter to many of my fundamental beliefs about health coaching. I think there is no substitute for in-person interactions. However, I need to keep the HEALTH in health coaching. I, as do we all, have a fundamental responsibility to encourage our population to “socially isolate.” I wish we had a better term for this—it sounds so horrible. Any suggestions? I’m serious…if you have suggestions for a better term please comment below!  

I believe, we can turn this concept of social isolation into something good and positive in our lives. We can commit to having meaningful interaction via electronic options, send positive energy into the world, and use the time to delve deeper into our real “selves” and explore areas in our lives we have been ignoring. And, on a personal note, now I will be forced to become more comfortable with online coaching delivery. I’m mortified to think it took a pandemic to move me in this direction, but I’m just doing my best.

An experiment

To that end, I’m moving our next Kindred Spirits gathering from in-person to online. The gathering is scheduled for March 26, just as this virus will spreading exponentially in the Midwest. It would be silly (and irresponsible) to hold an in-person gathering at that time. Hosting an online event will be a new experience for me and I feel a little bit of excitement around this experiment. (I’ve produced a lot of webcasts for others but have never actually been in front of the mic. I guess it’s time—yikes!).

And, as an added bonus, this experiment will allow people from outside the immediate area and those who aren’t prepared to drive to participate. Who knows what may come about? Ultimately I hope we will be contributing to building a healthier world. Please consider attending.

In keeping with the times, the topic will be Living with Uncertainty.  As I move forward with this I’ll post details. If you receive emails from me, then you are on my email list and I’ll use this to keep you informed. If you don’t receive my emails, please sign onto my mailing list (below at the very bottom of the screen) or email me at info@healing-ground.com to receive updates.

I look forward to facing these new challenges together. I have no idea what to expect—some things are just outside of my control and Covid19 is one of those things. I encourage all of us to stay connected, informed, aware, and most importantly to resist the forces of hate. Let’s do this together as the universal body that we are!


“You may ask yourself…” Feels appropriate for the times and forces me to get up and dance.