“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.” – Proverb.
Writer, director and producer of the award-winning documentary ‘Heal’ and author of the follow-up book of the same name, Kelly Gores, says that we find ourselves in a metamorphosis of sorts. Every crisis provides the culture for one.
Because the ground beneath our feet shifts daily, we’re faced with modifying our lifestyles and re-evaluating our choices so that we can attempt to do this dance with uncertainty.
Kelly says that the unknown can be absolutely terrifying. Until we remember that we have never known. “We look for ways we can control and feel safe. That we can control is the great delusion. So what if we learn to trust a little more . . . What if we let go of the need to know. Let go of the need to control. Let go of imagining the worst-case scenario over and over in our heads, and realize there are many other possibilities, including the best-case scenario.”
Mike Dooley urges people to stop insisting upon and attaching to ‘how’ things should unfold. Rather focus on your preferred end result, on what you want, and leave the how- it-must-happen open. If you insist that something could only happen in a certain way, you won’t be able to recognise a miracle even if it reared up and bit you in the nethermost regions.
It is more important than ever before to notice where you place your attention and how it makes you feel. If unchecked, the emotions that are coming up right now can lead to severe overwhelm, stress and sickness.
Fear creates stress. Stress generates stress hormones that put you into fight-or-flight mode, whereas health can only happen when you are in a parasympathetic state of rest-and-digest. While Covid-19 and its health risks are absolutely real, the fear we’re experiencing may be an even more dangerous pandemic.
So, please be gentle with yourself. Allow yourself the kindness of self-compassion for the tension your body is experiencing. It is crucial that you find techniques that help you to reduce your anxiety.
Joan Borysenko is one of the leading experts on stress, spirituality and the mind/body connection. She has a doctorate in medical sciences from Harvard Medical School and is a licensed clinical psychologist. Joan is an inveterate storyteller. That is how she teaches and how she learns.
“Stories heal both the listener and the storyteller. Recounting stories, especially those of spirit and human goodness, actually changes our brain by calming down the fear centres and encouraging the parts of our brain that are here and now,” she says.
Telling stories is what we as humans have been doing around campfires for aeons. Kelly Gores says that in all the research she has done on the human body’s capacity to heal, she has learned that, without a doubt, community and connection are essential parts of healing.
As your community publication, the Bronnie aims to shine its light even brighter to help you find connection instead of isolation and to share stories that will help you heal.
“We simply cannot heal or be healthy alone. We are designed to live and thrive in community. Social support, feeling loved, and giving love, all dramatically increase health, wellbeing, and likelihood of healing,” Kelly says.
The trick is that we can only connect to others in the extent to which we are connected to ourselves.
Kelly says that this crisis is rich with opportunity to re-connect to ourselves. We are all going through a metamorphosis, so “do the inner work, look for opportunities to serve, hang out in gratitude instead of fear, and let go of trying to figure it out”.
Ram Dass writes that you cannot rip away caterpillarness to speed up the process. The whole trip occurs in an unfolding process over which we have no control.
Girlfriend, we don’t need to understand it all right this red-hot minute; we just need to become aware that we’re all in this process. Be patient with yourself, your loved ones and your community. Being uprooted from century-old ways of life is a tiring process.
Necole Stephens says: “When you find yourself cocooned in isolation and you cannot find your way out of darkness . . . Remember, this is similar to the place where caterpillars go to grow their wings.” |
