Weary

Today I attended an online meeting and I sensed something … I tried to find the right word to describe what I felt: worry?  no not that, although there is worry. Fear, there is some but that’s not the right word either.  Depression, no not really.  I think weariness is the right word.

Weariness. We are tired of this pandemic that is keeping us apart. We are social beings who need each other. We are tired of the constant updates of people dying. We are afraid for ourselves, and our communities. We crave a sense of normalcy. We need the festivals, the celebrations and even the mourning that we share as humans.

As our minds tell us to social distance for the good of humanity, our souls cry for connections. We are tired. The common enemy is hard to see let alone fight. People around us in the stores are now a threat. That cough or sneeze that could be seasonal allergies are now seen as life threatening. We are stressed fighting this invisible enemy.

The constant need to be on “High Alert” is taxing. The fear of survival on a heath level but also on a financial level is draining. The human response for fight or flight is in high gear. There is also the response that many people don’t talk about, freeze.

The freeze is the response is what’s driving alcohol and marijuana sales around the nation.  Freeze is paralyzing. The freeze response keeps us from taking action. The freeze response is designed to save our lives. However, the freeze response is designed to be short term. Freeze is not the response we should have for 30 – 60 days. Freeze will not serve us well in this pandemic.

How do we move passed Freeze? By engaging our minds, we can move from freeze into action. Movement and thinking can change our perspective. Fear/ Freeze paralyzes us and keeps us still so that our conscious mind can catch up. We need in times of crisis to access our conscious, problem solving mind that is not available to us when we are in fight, flight/freeze mode.

In the Gift of Fear, Gavin de Becker talks about logic and intuition and the role each play in our survival. We are fascinated as human beings by a recent discovered dead body. Why? Because we are gathering information that is vital to our survival; we are understanding why this happened. Is this still a threat?  I think this the reason that this is what is happening in this pandemic.

When we are in a dangerous situation, we feel vulnerable. When we perceive something as a threat our bodies respond. Signals are something that we need to pay attention to. We need to make sure we are responding instead of reacting. In his book, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why, Laurence Gonzales says; “thinking too little causes us to panic thinking, too much causes us to choke.”

Denial is a human condition; animals listen to their instincts. Humans will override their instincts, often to their own peril.

Intuition and instinct are gifts that are human resource that helps humanity survive. Intuition is knowing something without knowing the why. Instinctively, we know that viruses are dangerous.

Our older dog, Bella took water into her lungs during a recent swim and is now struggling with breathing and is coughing. Our younger dog is nervous. She is staying away from Bella, hiding under the bed and leaving the room when she coughs. Her instincts tell her, coughing signals illness, stay away. It doesn’t help that Mom & Dad are worried. Does this sound like your kiddos?

Even when we as humans override our instincts, they are still talking to use. These signals are releasing a cocktail of hormones into our system. We are showing signs of fatigue and weariness from these hormones. I am no doctor; I just know intuitively these extra hormones can’t be good for use overtime.  I think we all “know” that, which only add to the stress and the cycle is then compounded.

So, what can we do? There are a couple of things that can help.

Remember the saying, “Fear grows in the dark”? Journal, get the fear out of you and onto paper so you can examine it and address it.

Take to a supportive friend. We are social beings and need each other. Helping others is one way to help ourselves.

Learn something new. Using the analytical part of your brain will help take the focus off the emotional part of your brain. To help you we are offering a variety of Skills Building Webinars, including Microsoft Excel, and our NEW Word programs. We of course are offering leadership and communication courses as well. Priced at only $9.97 each to give you an opportunity to learn and thrive while in this crazy time. All our webinars and products can be found at www.soulcanyon.com

Stay healthy in mind, body and spirit folks. We have made our Personal Transformation program FREE at this time to help you get to the “Canyon of Your Soul”. Finally, reach out with a phone call or an email, we are here for you.

Your friends at Soul Canyon.

Rob, Mary, Bella & Sunny