The impact of COVID19 is rippling far and wide...there is no way to truly distance and separate our lives from the current events. Our lives have changed and we are navigating some new terrain. The new challenges along with the many fears converging at once is tipping the scale for many. Finding ourselves overwhelmed and "threatened" puts our body into it's "fight, flight, freeze" state and reduces our ability to engage "well". WE CAN SHRINK THE OVERWHELM and engage with our innate brilliance for wise decision making. Intention and attention are our responsibility.
While I've assisted hundreds of women in creating their versions of the healthiest and happiest "self-maps", some of those "lands" have experienced a massive storm that has changed the ability to "navigate as usual". I liken it to "My world" being littered with debris to sort though and limbs down preventing the normally easy access to parts of my map. I'm reminded that exercising, reflecting, and learning coping skills vs panic will be the game-changer in how we treat ourselves and each other on our "map".
I heard a sweet distinction of what we're really being asked to do is PHYSICAL distancing...not social distancing. We ARE NOT ALONE in this and the isolation often felt in motherhood before this crisis our culture is navigating has been heightened to extremes for many.
We can practice scaling back; to turn the dial from the enormous big picture into what is manageable right now. We CAN shrink the overwhelm by tuning into where we ARE. Just NOW...recalling what matters most in the moments we're in and discerning what our next right step is. (Frozen 2 anyone?)
I recorded a call on Friday, March 20th to help with some of these perspectives and some self-coaching techniques that can help guide you as you discover a new "map" of what "your world" can look like. I referenced "Zooming in and out" like Google maps, but also how we approach our list of areas to tend to. We can change our approaches, we can change our expectations, and we can change the way we measure our progress.
I encourage you to give the recording a few moments, I am a little "rusty" using the tech that I did, but eventually got into a flow and the content may help you engage more efficiently and effectively in "your edited world".
My "Land of Lisa" still has much of the same areas I'm committed to "visiting" regularly, but the way I "touch" them looks a bit different right now.
I hope you'll give yourself reflective time with the worksheet to explore what matters to you, how you can imagine areas of your life healthy and well right now...and over the next few weeks/months. By developing a picture, you can more appropriately make decisions congruent to that vision AND notice more often that you ARE living in a way that you desire. We do not have to be victims of our circumstance, but rather developers of a new world we can be inspired to create.
I'm interested in your feedback and if you found this helpful. I plan to do some Facebook live videos to address and coach though some specific challenges some of the moms in "my world" are facing. Please tell me yours. We're in this together
UPDATED 3/27/2020
My notes from a webinar I attended about how we can dial back to our present moment:
By stimulating the vagus nerve, we can create a qualitative difference in our nervous system (our interface for interpreting our world - internal and external)
We can orient to safety (internal - our safety is not "out there") by:
- Breathing calmly and deeply
- Rubbing our neck, squeezing our arms, legs, head, press in, wrap up
- Be honest about how we are feeling and then "come home"/re-center
- name how we're feeling (out loud)
- affirm that our feelings are normal
- even though I feel scared, I'm safe
- even though I'm nervous, I'm safe
- even though I feel ________, I'm safe
- MOVE - build in multiple times a day to move right now
- Stay connected to relationships that matter and nurture our well-being (honoring that we are ALL in this)
- Gargle
- Splash cold water on face, finish showers with cool water
- Engage with what intrinsic interests
- See your chiropractor
- We "borrow" from each others nervous system (I referenced mirror neurons in my call) - notice when activated so we can self-regulate
- We can notice, practice and model self-regulation to grow the skill and expand its impact
- The world is saying "hello" to our nervous system; we can keep coming back to our truths, our safety and be an external regulator for others
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