Elsabe Smit
We Have Lockdown. So?
Millions of people all over the globe are house-bound and only allowed to go out for essential trips. Of course, I could write a book about the reasons for this, and whether the lockdown is justified or not. However, it is what is.
The more important question is what to do about it.
In a way this is better than experiencing a full moon. An adult body consists of around 60% water. If you know what the moon can do to the ocean in terms of tides, imagine what the moon does with the water in your body during full moon! When this happens, many people feel as if they are being attacked by an invisible power, and they “fight back” with anger and aggression.
With the lockdown, we cognitively understand what is happening. However, many people still struggle with fear and anxiety, and if they don’t get help, they feel overwhelmed very quickly.
What can you do about it?
Firstly, go inside - no, not inside your house, because you should already be inside the house unless you have a garden to enjoy. I mean meditate. Just experience the silence in and around you, with no expectations.
This is a time where you can assess your faith. There is this silly belief that spiritual people who don’t go to church or follow organised religion also don’t believe in God - or whatever you choose to call this higher power. We know that is not true. We do believe in a Higher Power, and we know better than to blame this Higher Power for a man-made situation. If you have any doubts, you can fall into the trap of doubting or blaming yourself for not believing “enough”, or you can do something far more constructive: put your doubts into words, and find the reason for the doubts, and deal with them. There are always people who are willing to be used as a sounding board, and who can help you strengthen your faith.
One of the big issues for many people is the fear of dying. A truly spiritual understanding is that life and death cannot be separated, and that dying is really like changing into invisible clothes. You never cease to exist. If it is your time based on your life script, then that is how it is. Do you really want to leave this world in fear? Not me, thanks.
Millions of people all over the globe are house-bound and only allowed to go out for essential trips. Of course, I could write a book about the reasons for this, and whether the lockdown is justified or not. However, it is what is.
The more important question is what to do about it.
In a way this is better than experiencing a full moon. An adult body consists of around 60% water. If you know what the moon can do to the ocean in terms of tides, imagine what the moon does with the water in your body during full moon! When this happens, many people feel as if they are being attacked by an invisible power, and they “fight back” with anger and aggression.
With the lockdown, we cognitively understand what is happening. However, many people still struggle with fear and anxiety, and if they don’t get help, they feel overwhelmed very quickly.
What can you do about it?
Firstly, go inside - no, not inside your house, because you should already be inside the house unless you have a garden to enjoy. I mean meditate. Just experience the silence in and around you, with no expectations.
This is a time where you can assess your faith. There is this silly belief that spiritual people who don’t go to church or follow organised religion also don’t believe in God - or whatever you choose to call this higher power. We know that is not true. We do believe in a Higher Power, and we know better than to blame this Higher Power for a man-made situation. If you have any doubts, you can fall into the trap of doubting or blaming yourself for not believing “enough”, or you can do something far more constructive: put your doubts into words, and find the reason for the doubts, and deal with them. There are always people who are willing to be used as a sounding board, and who can help you strengthen your faith.
One of the big issues for many people is the fear of dying. A truly spiritual understanding is that life and death cannot be separated, and that dying is really like changing into invisible clothes. You never cease to exist. If it is your time based on your life script, then that is how it is. Do you really want to leave this world in fear? Not me, thanks.
The second thing you can do is assess what is happening in the world. You can focus on the fearmongering and misinformation in social media, but I for one do my best to avoid that like the plague. I choose to delete anything that remotely looks like chainmail or that is meant to instil fear, and rather focus on all the good that is already happening in the world. Fear lowers your body vibration and compromises your immune system, whereas gratitude has the opposite effect.
Find the opposite of anything that you feel instils fear in you and find the gratitude for a unique experience. You will say this is easier said than done, but I have read about a way to do this that is so simple and powerful that it is mind-blowing.
When the emotions overwhelm you and you feel that there is no way out, ask yourself a simple question: “So?” and see what happens.
For example, a client told me she is in a total panic about her aged mother’s health and immune system. I asked “So?” and the client said: “she is in lock-down in a nursing home”. I asked “So?” and the client said: “Nobody can get to her - not even me”. I asked “So?” and the client said “That means her chances of getting infected are miniscule”.
The exchange may sound simple, but you should have seen the effect on the client. Suddenly she radiated and her whole demeanour changed. She smiled broadly and I could feel only relief from her.
When you feel overwhelmed, use this simple word and ask yourself “So?” and see and feel what happens to you. When someone else radiates fear to you, ask the same question, and ask it until you see the change in the person.
One simple word can help us through this wonderful opportunity to turn the world around, and it can start with one person at a time.
So?
Find the opposite of anything that you feel instils fear in you and find the gratitude for a unique experience. You will say this is easier said than done, but I have read about a way to do this that is so simple and powerful that it is mind-blowing.
When the emotions overwhelm you and you feel that there is no way out, ask yourself a simple question: “So?” and see what happens.
For example, a client told me she is in a total panic about her aged mother’s health and immune system. I asked “So?” and the client said: “she is in lock-down in a nursing home”. I asked “So?” and the client said: “Nobody can get to her - not even me”. I asked “So?” and the client said “That means her chances of getting infected are miniscule”.
The exchange may sound simple, but you should have seen the effect on the client. Suddenly she radiated and her whole demeanour changed. She smiled broadly and I could feel only relief from her.
When you feel overwhelmed, use this simple word and ask yourself “So?” and see and feel what happens to you. When someone else radiates fear to you, ask the same question, and ask it until you see the change in the person.
One simple word can help us through this wonderful opportunity to turn the world around, and it can start with one person at a time.
So?
Creating Gratitude
Is it possible to create gratitude rather than just feel it momentarily? Yes, it is. Let me explain.
The Universe is in complete balance - from the largest global pandemic to the smallest sub-atomic particle. That is how everything was created. We tend to forget about this incredibly beautiful balance when we get stuck in emotions.
There is a difference between emotions and feelings. Did you know there are over 3000 words in the English language that describe emotions? Emotions are energy in motion, and they get us into trouble all the time because when we have emotions, we have knee-jerk reactions.
Try this. Express anger as you read this. It doesn’t matter what you are angry at. Just express anger. Notice how your body and your face instinctively know what to do. You know exactly which of the muscles in your face to use, and how to use them, so that nobody will be in any doubt that you are angry. See what happens to your breathing and your body. Your body knows the difference between angry and happy and will follow your command.
You can do the same for any other emotion, such as sad, excited, lonely and so on.
All those are emotions. Then what is a feeling? Think back to the most amazing time in your life. Was it your first kiss? Or the first time you held your child in your arms? Wat is when you got married? You know when what you felt was beyond words.
Now tell your body to go back to that moment and express that moment in your face, breathing and muscles. Not that easy, huh? In fact, I would be surprised if you can mimic even 1% of what you felt at that moment. Describing it as “happy” would be like describing the ocean as “wet” - it just wouldn’t work. Those are moments that you cannot express in words, and your body cannot enter that state on command. Those are feelings. They lasted anywhere from a few minutes to maybe a week - where you felt that you were walking on clouds and it was out of this world. You experienced heaven.
You need to grasp this before you can understand how to work towards creating gratitude.
Gratitude is not just another emotion on the list. Gratitude is a process that happens in your body, and when you have experienced gratitude, you cannot go back to any other past state of mind or body.
Is it possible to create gratitude rather than just feel it momentarily? Yes, it is. Let me explain.
The Universe is in complete balance - from the largest global pandemic to the smallest sub-atomic particle. That is how everything was created. We tend to forget about this incredibly beautiful balance when we get stuck in emotions.
There is a difference between emotions and feelings. Did you know there are over 3000 words in the English language that describe emotions? Emotions are energy in motion, and they get us into trouble all the time because when we have emotions, we have knee-jerk reactions.
Try this. Express anger as you read this. It doesn’t matter what you are angry at. Just express anger. Notice how your body and your face instinctively know what to do. You know exactly which of the muscles in your face to use, and how to use them, so that nobody will be in any doubt that you are angry. See what happens to your breathing and your body. Your body knows the difference between angry and happy and will follow your command.
You can do the same for any other emotion, such as sad, excited, lonely and so on.
All those are emotions. Then what is a feeling? Think back to the most amazing time in your life. Was it your first kiss? Or the first time you held your child in your arms? Wat is when you got married? You know when what you felt was beyond words.
Now tell your body to go back to that moment and express that moment in your face, breathing and muscles. Not that easy, huh? In fact, I would be surprised if you can mimic even 1% of what you felt at that moment. Describing it as “happy” would be like describing the ocean as “wet” - it just wouldn’t work. Those are moments that you cannot express in words, and your body cannot enter that state on command. Those are feelings. They lasted anywhere from a few minutes to maybe a week - where you felt that you were walking on clouds and it was out of this world. You experienced heaven.
You need to grasp this before you can understand how to work towards creating gratitude.
Gratitude is not just another emotion on the list. Gratitude is a process that happens in your body, and when you have experienced gratitude, you cannot go back to any other past state of mind or body.
Now is a wonderful time to practice working on gratitude. Identify the one issue or experience around you right now that causes you the most emotional discomfort whether it is fear, anxiety, depression or whatever you are feeling but don’t want to feel. Experience that feeling in every cell of your body. Write down something that is bad or intolerable in the situation. For example, you cannot shake hands with people. Then find the opposite of that experience that you can observe - if not in yourself, then in other people. For example, whenever you cannot shake hands, you find yourself looking the person in the eyes, and you suddenly realise how much you have not observed before in other people.
It is important to take one item at a time - in other words, don’t rush down a list of negatives, and then go back to the first one and try to think of a positive to counterbalance it. You take one item at a time and find the balance.
Then you observe the magic that happens in you as you go through the exercise. One thing is that you break down your fears as you built them up - one brick at a time.
The second thing is that the more you do this, the more you find balance in every cell of your body - even if you think you only apply your mind while doing the exercise. There will come a moment when you reach the end of the exercise - not when you decide you have had enough, but when you feel the effect in your body. It is difficult to put into words but think of a magic explosion of light in every cell of your body. Suddenly you get that floating feeling, and you have complete perspective on the situation - more than ever before - and not a shred of the original emotion remains.
The physical effect is that a quantum of light is created in every cell of your body. As a result, your body vibration goes up - and that is permanent - it never goes down to a previous level again.
So yes, you can create gratitude, but gratitude is not just another emotion - it is a feeling that you can work towards, until you feel it.
Will this gratitude last? Yes - for anything from a few minutes to a week. And then you start again - because you are still in this life, and that is how life works. However, every time you do this, it becomes easier, it expands your consciousness, and your body vibration increases. Is that something you can look forward to and work towards?
It is important to take one item at a time - in other words, don’t rush down a list of negatives, and then go back to the first one and try to think of a positive to counterbalance it. You take one item at a time and find the balance.
Then you observe the magic that happens in you as you go through the exercise. One thing is that you break down your fears as you built them up - one brick at a time.
The second thing is that the more you do this, the more you find balance in every cell of your body - even if you think you only apply your mind while doing the exercise. There will come a moment when you reach the end of the exercise - not when you decide you have had enough, but when you feel the effect in your body. It is difficult to put into words but think of a magic explosion of light in every cell of your body. Suddenly you get that floating feeling, and you have complete perspective on the situation - more than ever before - and not a shred of the original emotion remains.
The physical effect is that a quantum of light is created in every cell of your body. As a result, your body vibration goes up - and that is permanent - it never goes down to a previous level again.
So yes, you can create gratitude, but gratitude is not just another emotion - it is a feeling that you can work towards, until you feel it.
Will this gratitude last? Yes - for anything from a few minutes to a week. And then you start again - because you are still in this life, and that is how life works. However, every time you do this, it becomes easier, it expands your consciousness, and your body vibration increases. Is that something you can look forward to and work towards?
