The Silver Linings in Pandemic Skies
From a 2021 getaway to Key West.
I started a big yoga training early 2020 and yeah… it was a drag to move to Zoom classes. But, the lockdown and isolation actually drove me to intensify my study and practice. What else was I gonna do?
Years on, I can now appreciate a few of the outcomes from living through a pandemic …
1. Presence
“Every moment offers an opportunity for good karma.” This is a sort of personal mantra that’s helped me to slip mindfully into challenging moments—to help me make right decisions.
More time at home was a blessing, if confining, at first. I replaced my daily commute with a regular meditation practice and there have been numerous benefits from this. Meditation is a refuge that provides “brain training” for life’s challenging moments.
2. Holding space
Having to hit “pause” on life brought forth the idea of “holding space.” Taking awhile … waiting to reflect before acting.
We humans instinctively fill every second with thoughts and actions, fill every space with possessions. When we “hold space,” we are able to ‘hear’ our intuition speaking to us more clearly. This innate wisdom has the power to remind us what is right, what is important. These days I often choose to keep the space I’ve held instead of refilling it. I am increasingly content with with less.
Related: Meditation: Where Do I Begin?
3. Discipline
Being at home more can quickly create a sedentary lifestyle, so it was important to find the energy to sustain some kind of routine. This stillness is precisely the reason that we need to move our bodies. The movement of exercise is an antidote to modern life.
To make it easier, I had to transform my space and ask myself the hard question: “What will you do if you don’t exercise/practice/move?” If the answer was “sit on the couch,” … that was not acceptable.
4. Equity
The tenets of yoga philosophy include union and “nondualism.” These reinforce the belief that all people are equal. But the pressures of the pandemic era amplified some scary inequities in society.
It reminds me of the essential meaning behind the word “namaste.” In India, this word is a common daily greeting, not dissimilar to “hello” or “good morning.” The root of the word means “to bow” or “to honor.” So in effect, saying “namaste” is a recognition of shared humanity: “The light in me sees and honors the light in you.” Respect. Equality.
5. Stress v. peace
Lockdown triggered my sympathetic nervous system—the “fight or flight” response that originates in the primal, ‘lizard’ part of our brain. I had to get it under control.
My mentor passed this wisdom to our class:
Our bodies represent the past: our tissues and brain hold the accumulation of everything to date, our karmas.
Our breath is the present: there’s never a moment we aren’t breathing.
Meditation prepares us for our future: we deal with our issues, hear our intuitive wisdom and train the brain to handle stressful moments.
The takeaway here was that our fears are created by our anticipation of the future. Grounding in the present is a way to soothe that nervous response.
You may have heard this word in chanting: “shanti (śānti)” … it means peace. Recall it sometime :)
Oṃ śānti śānti śānti