I’m sure you’ve had a few moments over the past few days where you’ve had to dig deep and remind yourself in order to keep your head above water its critical to remain focused on your vision. Everything around us is changing more quickly than it has in generations, and much of what we have grounded our sense of normal on turns out to be soft sand, shifting fast. We’ve all begun to see the multitudes of ways how the reality of restrictions are going to impact so many aspects of our lives, and it is easy to feel the icy fingers of anxiety reaching for us, feel powerless and uncentered.
Any time we perceive our expectations are not being met and get angry or frustrated, we activate our sympathetic nervous system which shuts down our immune system and our natural killer cells and white blood cells involved in our immunity are hindered. When we panic, we become vulnerable and also become the target.
We are only stressed because of unrealistic expectations; expecting somehow the world being like it used to be, but its not, or comparing what is happening right now to a fantasy of how it should be in the future, buts its not. There is no anxiety around or fear of the unknown – there is always content in your mind. Get clear on the content, and then become aware that you are assuming there will be more disadvantages to you than advantages.
Once you define it, ask how you can use it to your advantage, how is it on the way and not in the way of you living a life of purpose and meaning. By equilibrating the comparison of what is and what ‘should be’, governance comes to the executive centre in the brain and the autonomic nervous system balances, which then allows the immune system to rally and do its job. Stress escalates immune deficiency. We know that.
Recognise, in reality, what is available to you and ask yourself, what is the highest priority action I can take today towards my objectives in the circumstances I am facing; how can I use it to my advantage on my mission. Find opportunities and how to use your time effectively - think of words like innovation, adaptation, expansion, creation and resilience. See the benefits coming to you from the situation, and think in terms of transformation, not gain and loss. Extract meaning from it and see how it is serving you in your values to live a life of purpose.
Seriously, make a list of how you can use the situation to your advantage, bring it into 3D and not have it floating around as some vague concept of ‘silver lining’. Bring it in and make it real for yourself, in your values, integrate it. Now write down the highest priority actions you can do today to help fulfil what is most meaningful to you in your highest values. Bring your executive centre back on-line – this is where you are the most creative, most visionary, solution oriented, highest at creative strategic planning and are most able to execute with the least amount of volatility and emotion. This is a fact of brain functioning and neurochemistry, and is the wisest thing to be doing. And it rallies your immunity.
Keep your vision – focus on it as it allows you to link whatever is happening to it. Ask yourself, how circumstances are helping me reach it. Take the time to look, find the upsides to the perceived downsides, and you will find yourself more centred, poised and present. Don’t run the story and be a victim to the outer circumstances and be trapped, running down the immune system as the thing you fear comes near. What are the highest priority things you can do that is greatest for your business/family/mission. Keep asking. Keep the executive centre on-line and you will be less likely to be volatile, emotional, irrational and physically run down.
Being informed is one thing, but being emotional and dramatizing (thank you media!) is putting you in the amygdala and results in losing vision, where exaggeration and further polarisation of emotions is easy, and can cause a chain reaction with others creating a distracted society looking for blame and seeing only a small part of the truth. It is only in a state of balance that we can see properly - and thus, see opportunities, blessings, ideas, and solutions that perhaps others can't (which means we can help them, too). It's the state where inspired work and innovation is born.
That doesn't mean not to learn or prepare—it means to learn and prepare to carry forward the true heart of our lives. Distilling the genuinely vital and reminding you to find your highest values, prioritise, link your actions to your highest values and keep focused on your mission and vision.
What are your values, and what actions can you take today to stay on purpose, poised, balanced and continue to have a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Blessings and love
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