How are you doing these days? How are you coping with the new normal of “stay at home” mandates? Have you run out of shows to watch, are you tired of sitting at home yet?

Who could ever think that we would be in this situation when we started 2020? This seems straight out of a movie, don’t you think?

I was thinking about this and how this will affect us in the future. Then, I started thinking about how is this affecting us all right now. I was reflecting about my own feelings and what is that I am going through.

I don’t know about you but I had several MIXED EMOTIONS during these past weeks.

At first, like mostly everyone, I was denying the importance of what was happening. I was thinking that this was just a flu and I didn’t understand why it was take out of proportion…I had my numbers about the flu and I was comparing them with the numbers about the Coronavirus and I wasn’t seeing the urgency of what was happening…

Then, as I started to see how it was progressing in other countries and how it was impacting my own family in Spain, I started to grasp the seriousness of the situation…

My family was (and still is) sending me news about how bad it is in Spain. My older sister, a family doctor in Spain knows first hand what’s happening and the dire situation they are in.

So, after DENIAL, I started to realize that this was really happening…then, I freaked out.

Grasping the seriousness, what else could I do besides freaking out? Isn’t that a normal reaction? You are facing an unpredictable situation, how are you supposed to react? This is new for all of us, how do we face it? How do we go about it?

So my FEAR was very real, I was stressed out with all the possible bad scenarios happening, I was anticipating negative outcomes, the worst situations…it didn’t help that I was watching the news around me. I was checking the group apps with friends and family, and continuously scrolling social media which was by then full of news about the virus.

What happened after the fear kicked in? I felt STRESSED. I was WORRIED. I was ANXIOUS.

Now I was working from home, my company decided to follow the mandates and sent us home for a couple of weeks. Then, it was for a full month…How not to freak out?

But then, I was able to focus back and calm myself. Even thought I was uncertain about what to do, I realized that fear and anxiety were not the best states to help me figure out how to best deal with this situation. I recognized that I had to center myself and find a way to feel calm. So, I did what I knew best, I limited my access to the news, I limited how often I checked social media, I limited how many times I checked my family group app and I muted the notifications to my friends’ group app, so I wouldn’t be bombarded with all their continuous messages.

After I tool control of the negative input, I continued with my routine of daily meditation and I added a nightly meditation time as well. I found that adding 15 minutes of mediation as I wrapped up the day was very calming. You can check my previous blog here to see what I am focusing on to keep myself centered and healthy these days.

But, what happened after I dealt with my fear and anxiety? What happened when I realized that this was the “new normal”?

I came across mixed feelings…

One of the feelings I had was some type of GUILT. Somehow I felt guilty if there was something bringing me joy in my life…I was feeling guilty that in a time so grim like this I could still feel joy and have fun…Did you experience something similar?

Somehow I felt like I should be sad and serious, that I couldn’t feel happy of joyful because there were so many people suffering everywhere…Then I realized that me being sad would not help anyone. That each of us has the responsibility of uplifting others and that the more of us create positive energy in the world the better we would be.

We have already enough sadness and negativity in the news, how does it help if I am SAD and SERIOUS?

Other feelings I discovered during these days were RESIGNATION and ACCEPTANCE.

It is what it is. What can I do to change the current situation?

Yes, stay at home.

Yes, be well informed.

Yes, bring positivity to the world.

But I must wait and see how this will evolve.

I must accept that this is what this moment is. I must SURRENDER and accept it as it is.

These were some of the feelings I’ve been through: denial, fear, stress, anxiety, worry, guilt, sadness, resignation, acceptance…

Maybe you went through similar stages, or maybe you have very different feelings…

Maybe you are angry because you cannot continue with your life as it used to be.

Maybe you are depressed because you cannot be with your loved ones.

Maybe you are desperate because you lost your job.

Maybe you are even happy because you love the extra quality time with your kids.

Maybe you are overwhelmed because you have to work from home, homeschool your kids and keep up with all the usual house routines…

Maybe you are tired because you cannot sleep well…

Whatever you are feeling these days, the most important thing you should do is STOP and ACKNOWLEDGE how you feel.

Don’t try to bury your feelings with endless activities or checking social media or just binging on TV series…

Stop and BRING AWARENESS to your feelings, let them come through. Feelings are signals telling you something. Your body and your soul are trying to show you something.

Give yourself the space to listen. Sit quietly or journal about how you feel. Talk to a dear friend over the phone or share it with your partner. Let them come out. Ask yourself what is this trying to tell me?

For me, my fear and worry and anxiety about the worst scenarios was a way to see that financial stability is important and that I need to ensure I work towards achieving that in my future.

Reflecting on why and what was causing me to feel worried, helped me understanding about what I need to work on in my future if I don’t want to feel like that again. 

But I needed to allow the feelings to show up, I allowed myself to feel the emotion and then ask myself, what is this trying to tell me?  

Let yourself experience your feelings fully. Let yourself come up with breakthroughs. Let your emotions guide you into understanding yourself better. Bring AWARENESS to your feelings. 

And then...let yourself rest in the current moment. ACCEPT what it is.

I saw a beautiful quote from Oprah that applies perfectly to this, she said “All stress is caused by wanting this moment to be something it is not. I inhale what is. I accept this time for whatever it has to show me.”

Isn’t that beautiful? 

As I reflected on my feelings, I realized that my discomfort was caused by wanting to change the moment. By wanting things to go back to “normal”... 

But by accepting what is and letting this time show me whatever it is I need to learn I can come out on the other side of this better. I will come out stronger and wiser because I’ve listened, I’ve changed and adapted and grew and continued moving forward. 

And that is what we need to do. Inhale what is, accept this moment for what it has to show us...

Now let me know, how do you deal with your feelings and emotions these days? What have you experienced with this situation? What have you learned about yourself by paying attention to your feelings? Let me know below, I’d love to hear from you!

xoxo,

Sofia