My public health oriented & mindfulness practiced brain has been activated with news about the coronavirus.
Here are eight practices to understand and be with the uncertainty of the coronavirus.
- Be aware that our individual and collective nervous systems’ fight or flight system is likely agitated by the uncertainty and thus y/our fuse may be shorter than usual. Meditation practices including Yoga Nidra Meditation can support calming the nervous systems, promoting healing, relaxation, and internal balance;
- Strengthen and nurture your self care regimen and boost your immune system consciously—now is the time to take that long walk on the bayou, to stop and admire the wildflowers, to eat the local honey from your farmers’ market to manage seasonal allergies, to gently stretch and breathe in the morning and evening, to roll your foot out with a ball, to do ankle rolls as you put on and take off your shoes;
- Set a boundary on how many times a day you check the news and your various feeds;
- Watch Trevor Noah to get your laughs in and to feel his joy. I don’t have cable and watch it on my computer via the Comedy Central website. Comic relief helps to ease stress and anxiety;
- Practice cultivating joy—allow yourself to laugh and then feel where the joy resides in your body. Feel that joy expand out to your fingers and toes, then send that joy energetically out to your partner, BFF, anyone who is suffering, our planet, and to yourself. This is the primary practice that I’m currently enjoying and teaching, in the words of The Grateful Dead, nothing left to do but smile, smile, smile;
- A foundational and historically transformative basic public health practice: wash hand with soap and warm water mindfully breathing in and out five times;
- Take a bath as our bodies are temples and in the spirit of squeaky clean hands, take some time to linger in an Epsom Salt Bath. A wonder for aches and pains, the magnesium promotes sleep and stress reduction. Whole Foods currently has two blends that I’m particularly enjoying, Himalayan Rose and Mint with Activated Charcoal. It’s important, so I’ll say it again, our bodies are temples, and the collective fear about the virus does not need to be brought into your cells, skin, and subconscious; and
- Care is a continuum—social distance as appropriate based on your and others’ well-being.
MAY WE BE WELL
SVAHA
SVAHA
(c) Justine K. Fanarof, JD, MPH E-500RYT
JUSTINE YOGA 