Here we are. Each of us with our own experience of the changes the pandemic has brought into our lives, and each of us with our own habits and tendencies to react to uncertainty. As we continue to meet an unknowable future, let’s remind ourselves that the future has always been thus; our mind might naturally draw sketches of Things To Come, both scary and hopeful, and it’s tempting to act as if these thoughts are the Truth.
What’s true, what’s knowable, is what’s here right now. What is it that you can sense in this very moment? Are you breathing? Can you know that you are breathing? Right now is a wonderful time to pause and just feel this breath.
I am reminded of the advice Mr Rogers’ mother gave him, whenever there was some catastrophe, to look for the helpers. We are all doing our part to “flatten the curve”, to reduce the spread of the virus, to make room for those who may need critical care. In this way, we can see helpers everywhere, the whole world in this common, vulnerable circumstance.
Speaking of helpers, the healthcare providers among us have been functioning heroically throughout the pandemic, making sacrifices and at times risking their own health. Same for the front line service workers in the grocery stores, and the people driving the buses and delivering mail, the first responders, the people picking up garbage, and running the utilities — these are the pillars of our civilization.
And there are those among us whose livelihoods have been or are yet still uncertain. The mind rushes in and fills in the gaping emptiness of what things might look like in the future. The question I find most useful for myself in times of Not-Knowing is:
“How Do You Want to Be?”
I recently received an email from a graduate of MBSR who shared how anxious she felt just a couple days ago, and then did a body scan, and felt much calmer afterwards. These practices offer us the ability to reconnect with our own clarity. We can discern from here how we want to be, and what we might do next, rather than acting from our reactivity.
How do I want to be? I want to be of service. I want to be brave and generous. I want to be optimistic about how we will all continue to care for one another, and I want to see all of our contributions clearly, as the acts of love that they are.
How do you want to be? One of my wishes for you is to please be gentle with yourself. Please allow for distractedness, forgetfulness, irritability, sadness, restlessness, anxiety, confusion, or whatever emerges as we all make adjustments to how life is unfolding right now.
