With all the craziness and uncertainty going on around the world lately, it’s easy to feel defeated, overwhelmed, anxious and worried. It’s easy to think of giving up and it’s only human to feel this way.
But often, we have more courage and strength than we realise.
In moments like this, we must access our inner wisdom, so we can use our time to transform and grow as much as we can.
With that in mind, I wanted to share the process I use whenever I want to find some joy, meaning and growth in the times of hardship.
1. ACCEPT WHAT IS
This is not easy to do, but it’s a crucial step. When we try to fight the circumstances that we don’t have control over, we waste a lot of energy and time, and it can activate feelings of helplessness and sadness.
As humans, we’re vulnerable and this is frightening. We live such busy lives we often forget about our vulnerabilities until something happens and we get a reminder.
A lot of us are afraid of dying, so we spend most of our time avoiding that fear. We don’t want to think about it because it doesn’t feel good.
But imagine being at peace with it, fully accepting that things come and go as nature intended. How much more joy, freedom and life would you have if you were just a little bit more at peace with it?
Maybe your fears are different, but whatever you feel, the best thing to do is to stop fighting it. Our mind doesn’t respond well to repression and control. Instead, feel your worries and find a healthy outlet to let them out.
How? By breathing and sitting with your scary thoughts. Leave them in your head for a while without fighting them and slowly breathe through your emotions. Cry if you need to, smile if you need to, do whatever comes up naturally, and don’t forget to breathe.
You don’t need to do it for long: 5-10 minutes a day of awarely bringing up your fears without resisting them is enough to change your relationship with them, which will show as more peace, joy and life.
And don’t focus on doing it perfectly or expecting you’ll be worry-free after one breathing session. Instead, just be there and whatever happens, happens. Simply breath in and out and accept what is. You’ll be fine. We’ll be fine. Just breathe in and out and listen to your inner voice that knows that everything is okay. Accept what is.
2. FOCUS ON THINGS YOU CAN CONTROL
Focus your energy on where you can make a change. This transforms the feeling of helplessness into inspiration and motivation, and it can be a powerful shift in difficult times.
Like I said before, fighting the circumstances doesn’t take us far, but adjusting to them and finding new ways to grow can transform us so profoundly, we’ll never be the same.
So ask yourself: “What can I control in this situation?”.
It can be the food you eat, the movies you watch, the books you read, the news you consume, how you spend your free time etc.
So as anxious or stressed as you may be right now, I know there are some things you can do that will improve your life, even after this is over.
Ask yourself what would you like to learn or achieve when the hard times pass and focus on that.
Here are some suggestions to help you find your goals:
- Write a bucket list: what are some of the things you always wanted to do? Maybe you wanted to learn how to play the guitar or speak Spanish? Or you want to learn how to dance so that you can enjoy it more. And maybe, you want to learn how to cook like a pro? Write down whatever comes to mind and then pick things you can do in the comfort of your own home as your goals for the next few weeks.
- Work on your health: living stressful and busy lives, can make us forget to take care of ourselves, but the good news is now we have the time. So ask yourself if there is anything health-wise that you would like to improve. Maybe you want to get back your flexibility and do splits by the end of the quarantine. Or you want to improve your diet a little bit by adding vegetables to every meal. Maybe you want to start drinking more water and fewer sodas? Whatever it is, write it down and pick the one you want to do the most. And remember, don’t try to do too much at once, instead focus on making small fun changes that will last for a long time.
- Clean and declutter your home: as we’re all in our homes all day, we can finally focus on creating a clean and joyful environment where we can completely relax. If you want to declutter, I created a 5-day decluttering challenge with decluttering ideas, to help you get started. But if you’re going to clean and declutter only a small area of your home, then check out How to declutter clothes, shoes, beauty products, books & papers or digital life.
- Mental health: this is the perfect opportunity for us to work on our emotions and feelings. We can start journaling, talking to our partner, meditating, doing yoga, mindful breathing, reading, and so much more. We finally have the time to develop skills that will help us with our stresses in daily life once this is over. You can literally train your brain so that you’re ready when the busy life returns.
- Pick smaller weekly challenges: when times are uncertain, smaller and fun challenges will help you feel like you’re moving towards your future, so instead on working on some bigger goals, you can do weekly challenges: there are a lot of fun challenges on social media at the moment, ranging from fashion challenges to fitness challenges, and of course, there are some decluttering challenges as well 😉
- Maybe you can even take some action steps that will help you solve some of your current problems because the funny thing is, once we accept things as they are, we become free of stress and we can see the same issues in a different light. So try it and see how it goes!
3. PICK YOUR GOALS AND STAY CONSISTENT
After the first two steps, all you have to do is pick your favourite goals and work on them.
I recommend you share them with your friends or partner (even better if they join you), write them down somewhere so you can see the reminder or share it on social media to make yourself accountable.
And as it goes with everything in life, don’t give up on your goals. Yes, some days will be harder than others, but do your absolute best to stay consistent because only then we can see and experience a change.
Also, try to stop reading so much news. How much information do you really need at this point? You can quickly check what’s going on once in a while, but other than that, you can take a pause and breathe.
It’s much easier to stay positive and calm when we’re not bombarded with negativity and stress all day long. So take that break that you need.
I hope this post is inspiring and helpful, and that we’ll all become a little bit more mindful, peaceful and intentional once this passes.
If you enjoyed this post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help it spread by sharing it! Thank you 😉
