How Yoga and Meditation Can Help Cope with COVID-19

Originally published on TrustedNutrition.com

Are anxiety and stress creeping in?

Considering COVID-19, no one is escaping the underlying anxiety that is part of today’s “new normal”. Yoga and meditation are now more available than ever to help us cope.

Globally united by the coronavirus, we are being asked to sit still.

We’re being asked to be more present with ourselves and our loved ones. Both of these realities can be immensely challenging. Most of us are accustomed to non-stop action, consciously or unconsciously avoiding what is within us and sitting right beside us. Here lies our opportunity to embrace the present moment. Yoga and meditation offer the tools and techniques we need.

Yoga and meditation offer an abundance of opportunity to cultivate these skill sets to better cope with modern life. The physical yoga practice prepares our bodies to sit still in meditation. The ability to sit with oneself, and observe our thoughts, feelings and reactions is priceless. We learn to create a space between what crosses our mind and how we react. In time, we cultivate healthy neutralized responses rather than knee-jerk reactions.

What to Know Today:

1.     Creating a learning environment at home is an epic and equally challenging place to start. Now more than ever, yoga classes are readily available online for everyone. Classes for kids, prenatal offerings, mental health focused classes, and even “chair yoga” for office workers, the physically challenged and elderly, are all easily sourced. Remember, it may take time and patience to find what works for each of us.

2.     Keep in mind that yoga and meditation are both practices. Throw perfection out of the window. This is not a place for competition. There is no need to be hard on ourselves. We are human and simply must start where we are. Know that what comes up during these practices is 100% okay and may be exactly what we need to address. If anything at all becomes “too much”, back off during this strenuous time we are all now experiencing.

Within these practices, it’s normal to feel intense waves of anger or helplessness. This current pandemic is a prime example where such emotions may arise. These modalities are not about suppressing or ignoring rightful emotions and feelings. 

With healthy boundaries in place, we have every right to feel and express what is ok and not ok for us individually. Yoga and meditation are paths to creating awareness around whether our thoughts, feelings and emotions are valid. We then learn to work with our minds and allow these waves to roll by so that we can better respond during times of increased stress and anxiety.

Try this free meditation today to relax and destress.

The Mind-Body Connection

Now backed by science, our minds and bodies are proving to be inextricably linked. At times, what we are experiencing emotionally can manifest in our physical bodies. Today’s stress and anxiety can lend to our immune systems potentially functioning less than optimally. Given a healthy immune system is now more important than ever, yoga and meditation are top tactics we can employ to boost our immunity now and year-round.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has addressed managing anxiety and isolation during the quarantine. For anyone with a history of trauma, be sure to seek out “trauma-informed” yoga classes for extra support. 

Many people dedicated to holistic health have also offered pro-bono services during this time.

Why? Because we all deserve the opportunity to live stress-free.

After all, stress is the #1 source of doctor visits today. Certainly, circumstances arise when we should be supported. However, we must also take responsibility in supporting ourselves. 

The coronavirus pandemic has presented a time to dig deep and discover our holistic health individually. Yoga and meditation support our cultivation of self-awareness. This leads to increased conscious awareness of how we all affect one another.

If you enjoyed the free meditation, find more Mind-Body Training HERE with code “JONI30” for additional support during this time. 

Let’s come together and better support ourselves so that we can better support one another in training for this “new normal” as well as life moving forward.

Seek and Stay to Score Perfect Waves

Seekers - We Are Running Out of Time

Ever stop to notice that the endless seeking for something shiny, better, or new has only left you more lost than ever? Here's what’s likely happening.

We first world humans have a natural inclination to want more, be more, be better, and be perfect. When we encounter each new awakening of sorts, we might suddenly feel the need to run away and go on the now classic “journey”, seeking a way to "fix" ourselves. Welp. That will only get ya so far. The life of a seeker never ends. After a certain point, true magic transpires when we stay and face the waves breaking right in front of us. 

There is nothing wrong with us. We all have “stuff”.  

While important to seek resolutions to greater issues and ailments, we are not broken. What we are dealing with is simply the human condition. We all have this pesky “stuff”. And once we find one answer, there will always be another journey to arrive at the next answer. We all have pluses and minuses. We all mess up. No one is perfect. And time is a-wastin’.

Our generation has been fortunate to go on this journey of self-exploration. Even in the first world, most of our parents didn’t have this luxury. Expectations were to go to school, get married, and have kids in a time when the internet did not exist. Without easy access to information, life was simple as well as more challenging. Most people simply did not have the opportunity to indulge in self-discovery. 

Now we are now beginning to move past the information age. Today, many people are just beginning to “wake up”. We have evolved as a species. We have learned an awful lot about ourselves, our relationships, and how to grow and thrive in the world. We’ve learned how to make life better. 

But we are running out of time.

Without going into the insanity of what’s happening in the world today, if one has learned some things along the way, repaired and resolved the past as best as possible, there is good chance it’s time to step into action. Like, for real. This means, at bare minimum, an effort must be made to have actual conversations that need to be had, own what’s ours, and offer heartfelt apologies. There is no other way to repair and resolve. If we’ve at minimum attempted this whole shin-diggity-dang. Then awesome.

Side Note: This kind of stuff does not become resolved over text or email messages. There is not much neutralization of our nervous systems over messaging. Human connection, people. Face-to-face. Phone call, or hey face-time, if at a distance. Or we can choose to repeat the drama in the next similar situation rather than resolve it now. The choice is always ours. 

Time is Running Out

For those who have hit about 75% of finding peace within their individual issues, it’s time. It’s time to take responsibility. It’s time to stop running away. It’s time to share. It’s time to support. We need you now. Because time is running out.

With all that’s happening in the world, it’s been predicted that we have less than 30 years to turn this entire ship around. Our planet, politics, humanity – it’s all connected.  

There is simply no time left for endless journeys to fix ourselves, sitting in meditation for 30 years, or going on countless psychedelic trips to resolve our “stuff”. All of this continual work is important. But it’s time for action. 

What and how can you share now?

 There are so many ways! Large and small. They can be silent. They can be loud and proud.

            • Shift your career

            • Uphold industry pay standards + hold a pro-bono client

            • Start a true non-profit

            • Visual artists – let’s please tell more stories that matter!

            • Commune – with your loved ones, teams, and tribes

            • Smile at someone today

Even if we did eventually find a state-of-self somewhere near enlightenment, it is guaranteed someone somewhere will ruffle our feathers. When we are faced with situations that trigger us, instead of sitting with what is happening and dropping into heartfelt conversations so that we can repair, resolve, learn and evolve, we itch to run for the hills. And that is ok. This whole human thing is quite the experience. Words and events can be shocking to our systems. This happens when we have not resolved our “stuff”. But it’s ok! Do the work, acknowledge that itch, learn how to sit with what is happening, stay to receive the lesson, integrate it to move past it, repair the situation, resolve and evolve.

We have that prickly experience. We notice. We notice our impulses. We notice our choice of actions. We “woman up”. We “man up”. We learn. We progress. Within progression is where happiness and freedom await.

Initially, yes, we must turn within and begin to pay attention and cultivate an understanding around what is going on and how to handle being uncomfortable in our own skin. It can be terribly difficult to look at our truths. But this is the starting point.

With this newfound revelation, we might feel the urge to blow up our lives. And there is something to be said for that. Running away, quitting a career, divorce - change will happen all right. 

 But as they say, be careful what you wish for…

Taking these actions in a reactive state versus a resolved state usually only creates a ripple effect of more drama. Coming from a more neutral, grounded place, action might look like speaking with a therapist or coach. It might look like adding a daily meditation - and sticking with it. A handful of therapy appointments, a book and a course will not be a lifelong “fix”. There are a zillion opportunities online alone for continual efforts to observe, learn, understand, change, and transmute without destroying the good we already have been so lucky to find. Often, another human being who is already standing right next to us.

Of course, most of the time, even without an epic event. we simply become complacent. Other times, large and small traumas occur, yet we avoid. Fun must be put on pause which is way too inconvenient. So, we quit for what we think will be much more fun, fast and easy. The person next to us who we adore… oops… we forget our good fortune.

It’s not black and white. These scenarios are all overlap. The point is that we must seek. But we also must stay in order to evolve. Otherwise… we get to repeat. 

This path goes on forever. There is no such thing as a perfect life, a perfect wife, nor perfect wave. OK, well maybe a perfect wave. 

But how did we get to catch that perfect wave?!

We stayed out in the water! We didn’t get smacked and run back to the safe haven of the shore. We paddled our hearts out. We were smacked by close outs over and over. We almost drowned. We gulped so much saltwater that we puked. We paddled out again and again until our arms were limp. Then finally, ahhhh, we paddled, popped up, and found the flow. We all know, there is no other feeling like it.  

This is the luxury. We get to choose!

We choose to learn. Or we drop out, numb out (social media, the next muse, Netflix, cocktails, porn, sex, weed, Trump-ing), ghost the person or situation, point the finger, blame, project, and avoid. 

Now it’s easy to stay and avoid simultaneously which will also only lead to difficulties. But really sitting with what is happening, with healthy boundaries, plus tools and techniques to create a learning environment is where we flourish. Ask me.

Seeking is important. Seeking shows we are curious and motivated. At times, this is key. But once we hit about 75% - you guys - we have no time left for this level of self-involvement. There is no such thing as fixing. Perfection does not exist. There is too much work to be done. We all have endless talent to come together, collaborate and find greater ways to share what we have learned and make this planet a better place.

With all due respect, we all need to get over ourselves, drop the drama, and make real shift happen. Commit to those around you. Vow to seek and simultaneously stay with it. Love your people. Ride those waves. Tomorrow could be too late. 

Edited from original post in 2017 on jonimadere.com.