My Personal Thoughts During Self-Isolation
COVID-19 has completely shaken our society and normal way of living and for many, it’s presented challenges financially and socially. My heart breaks for the thousands of people who have lost their jobs just in our city, not to mention worldwide. Something as easy as going to the grocery store has become complicated. An item we’ve always taken for granted, like toilet paper, is now forever gone from our shelves or unable to be fulfilled on our delivery orders. It’s easy to feel disheartened and disappointed and it’s okay to feel those things.
I find that when I sit and truly try to think about the expanse of this situation I’m in awe – and not really in a good or bad way. Just in awe that every country and every person in the world is affected by this virus. At this moment our world is one and united in this situation. We are all experiencing the same event at the same time. I know at least since I’ve been alive I don’t remember a time when it has felt this way. 9/11 may have been close but that felt very centered around the U.S. and it was wonderful to receive support and love from all over the world during our country’s crisis but COVID-19 is a level playing field for all of us to experience.
2020 has already begun as a year with a different type of energy. January felt like a year-long in itself and then I blinked and now we’re already in April. There have been personal highs and personal lows for myself and my family, unlike anything I’ve experienced in recent years. And none of them, besides my beautiful little nephew being born, could have been predicted.
With all that’s happened so far, it would have been easy for me to drop into a lower level energetically, emotionally, and mentally. But I do truly believe this abrupt change in our daily life is a huge opportunity for new growth and inner understanding. When we are forced to alter our lives in such a huge way, and our daily routines are shifted unexpectedly, it gives us opportunities to really observe who we are and how we function. We often get stuck in the same cycles when life proceeds as normal. We wake up, we get ready for the day, have breakfast, head into work, do all the same tasks we’ve always done, handle all the same problems we always handle, have lunch, spend an afternoon doing the same things from in the morning, go home, eat dinner, unwind in the same ways we always unwind, and eventually go to bed to repeat it all the same way the next day. And then we’re surprised and frustrated wondering why we’re not living the life that we’ve always dreamed of. But how silly is it to think when we get stuck in the same routine, doing nothing new, that our lives will magically change for the better?
It’s when we sit back and become mindful of the constant, habitual moments we live out, that we can then pause, take control, and redirect our energy towards what is truly good. In these moments of mindfulness, growth can happen, steps can be taken towards dreams, and our lives can completely shift.
That’s why I feel that our present situation is the perfect time for shifting our reality. When in our lives will we even be given so much time? We are ordered to self-isolate for the greater good if we are non-essential workers. What a blessing for such a sad reason. And what a moment to share gratitude for the workers who are essential, on the front lines, doing everything they can to help during the current situation. As they give so much of themselves, we are given the opportunity to dig deep and understand ourselves on a new level to hopefully bring about even more good in the long run as we journey through these unprecedented times.
Our days are different, our lives are different, the normal routine is gone. I know I’ve become much more aware of my habits, childhood triggers, and conditioning I’ve acquired through daily life. I’ve jumped on trying to take hold of what this change and what this time can show me. I’ve been observant of my moods, reactions, and natural wants to see if it’s really something I want or if it’s something I think I want because my body and mind say it’s just what we’ve always done. I’ve changed up my morning routine, cooked healthier food, and spent more time exercising and meditating. I’ve tried to do it at different times throughout the day to keep my mind and body guessing so I can unpack all of the triggers, memories, and reactions that come up. I’ve started reading more, and books I may not have normally picked up off the shelf, so I can open my mind to different thoughts and ideas and truly form my own, personal opinion.
Personally, most of my days look like this: I wake up between 6:30 and 7:00 to either do RomWod, yoga, meditation, reiki, or a mix of all of them. It gives me enough time before having to be on the clock at 8:30 for work that I don’t feel rushed through the experience. I work remotely, which is new and wonderful but sometimes lonely, eat lunch when I actually feel like it, work through the afternoon, jump off the clock at 5:30 and enjoy an evening walk with the dogs, reading, playing games, watching TV, maybe some more meditation, maybe some more yoga, whatever I feel drawn to. But I try to do it in ways that I wouldn’t normally – as silly as it seems, I try to sit in different spots on the sofa, or maybe read on the floor. Just so my body knows this is different and good.
The book I’ve been reading lately is Becoming Supernatural by Dr. Joe Dispenza. It was on my Christmas list but I honestly didn’t pick it up until self-isolating. Personally, I think it’s because the Universe was waiting until I was ready to be as open as I am now to the ideas in the book. This book is about breaking the habits and conditioning of your life to create a life you’ve always dreamed of and to achieve healing you’d never think you were capable of. It makes a remarkable connection between how our mind influences our body, gene expression, and overall health. Through studying neuroscience, epigenetics, psychoneuroimmunology, neurocardiology, electromagnetism, and quantum physics, Dr. Joe Dispenza shows how each one of us can retrain our brains and shift our awareness to bring about greater healing and a better life. He shows how we often live in the past or future and trigger the stress hormones in our bodies based on the associations of people, places, memories, of tasks that we do on a regular basis. Things like anticipating answering stressful work emails, seeing your boss or co-workers you don’t get along with, or home tasks of things that have to get done. The negative feelings we have when experiencing these things the first time set off stress hormones that leave a marker on us and when we think back to these things our body doesn’t realize we’re living in the present thinking about the past so it releases these stress hormones as if it’s happening in our reality. Then, when we anticipate these events that will happen in the future the same stress hormones are released because again, our bodies think these negative things are happening presently in our reality even though they are not. Long explanation short, Dr. Joe explains how we can retrain our brains and bring about change for our greater good. I highly suggest the read – what better time to learn about changing your life than when you have nothing to do and nowhere to be!
Maybe this all sounds crazy to you, and if it does, that’s okay. I hope it’s just encouragement for you to break out of the norm and give yourself an opportunity for growth and understanding. Maybe you’ll just feel encouraged to do something you’ve always loved doing – painting, reading, dancing, whatever you’re passionate about. My biggest hope for you is that this time brings you healing and hope even when things seem dark.
Love and light always,
Rosalyn