Practising with Coronavirus

SCRIPT: Practising with Corona

As we live our surreal corona lives, all of us have the opportunity which I imagine pretty well all of us are taking in our own way, to ponder the change, the alteration that has been imposed on us over such a short period of time. And this alteration has come about out of a clear blue sky so to speak – the beginning of a pandemic and a response, instructed by our government and broadly speaking embraced by many or most of our fellow citizens. And it has become a truism to say that we have not known anything like this before.

And if I may speak for myself for a moment as someone who was born just after the end of the Second World War, I can repeat the truism spoken by many – there has been nothing like this in my lifetime. For sure there have been great potential threats and incipient fear. I dimly remember as a young teenager, the events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis and I was certainly aware in the background of the always present risk of a nuclear exchange that could destroy us all. I also remember the chaos of the 1970s, largely economic but not entirely so and since then as I look back a steadily unsteady progression and for many of us an improvement in health, material progress, life prospects, opportunities and security.

But I of course I also appreciate that my life experience, stretching back all those years is not that of many others today, who were born either somewhat or much later.  Have you for example lived only through what I call the great progression – of health, material progress, opportunities and security? So maybe you don’t see it quite so clearly as a progression. And many younger souls will be more sensitive and aware then I of downsides that are attached to  this great progression – of climate change, financial crises and an altogether more opaque prospect for future progression. And I for my part can only wonder at the now much greater ease of those who have come after me – with digital technologies and social media and up until now, the ever diminishing boundaries of the world in which we live.

And then this corona virus has appeared suddenly out of nowhere. And in some form or other it’s going to be staying with us. This goes for the illness itself, even as it becomes less threatening and we learn to live with – but also for the society, economy and international environment in which we will be living. I think that’s pretty clear. And how I wonder is this uncertain but changing prospect finding us, both as individuals and as part of the society that are embedding in our lives? And for sure we are all scrambling around to make sense of it, like having to learn a new language.

This is my suggestion for you. It is that you take the opportunity now to work hard on yourself so that you can be ever more resiliently optimistic. This will empower you and you will be better able to thrive in our increasingly uncertain future.

And how you can do this is my purpose here.

Well first off I will be helping you to give your attention to what is good and what is working well in your life now. This will be a very special gratitude practice. You will then be much more able to intuit empowering comparisons and evaluations between where you find yourself now and where you were previously. This will help you to move away from catastrophic black and white thinking and look forward with grounded confidence and equanimity.

Now, what you can do is to find a place where you can sit back and maybe lie back peacefully and quietly, even as there may be that sound gently in the background and where you can begin to let go – to be aware of yourself slowing down and deepening down. How might you be aware of this I wonder? If you choose you can enter into that magical membrane bubble that holds you safe. You are enclosed and protected and so comfortable as you are deepening down, feeling heavier and heavier. And as you are aware of your heaviness and your solidity and your rootedness in the ground that holds you solid and upright you may be able to find it really easy to focus on what is good and solid for you right now and working well. And as you do you may be surprised at where that takes you, might you not?

What are you learning about yourself that is supporting you now? What is it about your capacity for stillness, for practicality and busyness and where are you finding surprisingly so much of what you need. What is it that you are enjoying now in the stillness in the opportunity to be speaking and listening and creating? Be aware of your body health – breathing and moving and holding and finding your power. How much of this is working without you even thinking about it – that power enormously expanding.

And what have you learnt about yourself today? Like a squirrel who prepares so relentlessly and instinctively for the winter, you have laid down and squirrelled away all you need, haven’t you?

How grateful can you be and appreciative as you enjoy the pleasure of a delicious meal, a joyful memory and a delightful epiphany – those aha moments that take your breath away.

Just as we can all be delighted by learning something new and surprising, so you can in this moment be delighted about yourself and your life right now.

Being grateful and powerfully grateful and grateful in the power you feel. And as you do you can feel that connection to your past and your long lost past takes you back in an arc of memory to your beginning. You can intuit empowering comparisons and move away from entrapment. You will find the best of who you are and have always been, won’t you.

And now as I count back 5  4   3  2  1, come back to waking consciousness.

Do please listen to this again and again as you work hard on yourself and find yourself stronger and positive in your optimism.

Thank you.