Time to go Within

You wake up, pour yourself a cup of coffee, kiss your kids goodbye as they hop on the bus, go to work, come home, make supper, spend some nice family quality time together, then head to bed. Repeat.

Then, without any warning, life throws you a curve ball.  Seemingly overnight, your job lays you off, you stop being able to visit family, you can’t grab a cup of coffee with a friend, or even bring your kids to the park.  You’re told that it could be months, if not years until life can return to normal, whatever that normal might be. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit.

We are living history right now, currently in the midst of a pandemic that will be taught in schools for generations to come: the time when we were all forced to stay inside and go inward.

But how do you go within when the world around you is chaotic? How do you go within when you just got laid off and CERB is barely enough to pay the bills? How do you go within when you don’t know when, or if, you’ll ever see your grandparents again?

You breathe.

Breathe. Sit with your feelings for a couple of minutes, focusing on your breath. Breathe with your feelings, your fears, your worries, taking long deep breaths. Take a body scan, relax your shoulders, unclench your jaws, ease those muscles and remember to breathe. Visualize your breath flowing from the crown of your head to the tip of your toes. With each inhale, visualize your breath flowing through, and with each exhale, ease the tension away. Visualize each colour of the rainbow washing over you with each breath, easing your worries away. Breathe.

Times are tough, they’re weird, they’re unsettling, but right now is the perfect time to do nothing. To be with your thoughts, to sit with your feelings, to breathe in awareness.

When you start going inward, you remember. You remember who you are, you connect with your soul, and you trust in the universe. Now is the perfect time to go within.

-Linda