COVID-19, A Time for Healing

Does anyone else feel like they’ve been forced into a timeout? Life has a funny way of pointing things out when we can’t seem to figure things out on our own, no matter how many warning signs we pass along the way. As humans, avoidance — of emotions, problems, things we are afraid to do, etc. — is part of everyday life.

We could have a bright red flashing light saying “do not take on this extra project” or “do not work 60 hours this week when you feel like you haven’t rested in a year” and still, we go go go until we are forced to stop.

This happens on a day-to-day scale…

“Don’t react how you usually do when upset” (still react the way you said you wouldn’t)

“My relationship isn’t giving me what I need but I will keep fix it later” (never gets fixed)

“I’ll spend more time with my kids” (never make the time)

“My job is depressing me, but I will find another when I can” (stay miserable)

Eventually, those smaller choices or inaction snowball into years of ups and downs and back and forth due to bad habits, mentalities or narratives that we never quite addressed, worked through or changed.

Imagine this nature of avoidance happening on a global scale, from personal lives to entire communities and corporations and governments — bad choice after bad choice is made until, as a collective, we allow wrong choice after wrong choice — and as a collective, we have to overcome it.

One could even say that on some level, this needed to happen.

Why?

If you continue speeding along in one direction forgetting all about the scenic route — life will find a way to remind you what you have been missing in your narrowed focus. Most of us were running on empty, destined to crash at some point. Even with routine maintenance, we often overlook some of the bigger issues that can slowly destruct the vehicle in which you travel.

Now we are stuck on the side of the road, pulled over in a field of roses — with life waiting for us to observe, breathe and remember what existed before the rest. Before the roads were paved. Before cars were invented. Before we had so many places to go.

Many of us were working insane work hours to avoid home. Going to social gatherings to avoid loneliness. Constantly dating to fill an inner void. Taking medications just to survive the pile of work that never ends at your job.

This worldwide pandemic has, for the most part, forced us to a halt. Restrictions are in place. People are isolated — left to deal with the very thoughts and choices and behaviors they have long been ignoring, no matter the price they knew it might cost them in the end.

We have been stripped of the falsities that we were using to define our purpose. No more escaping. We are now left to define purpose, happiness and wholeness in a new way, without outer factors to use as fillers.

Now you must define your worth, not based on the outer world, but based on who you are without it.

Consider it a halt on that path you have been running, no matter how much growth you thought you were making through accomplishments via societal measures. The halt that forces you to face what you have been distracting yourself from — what is left when all the noise stops.

You have been invited to go within. To take the foot off the gas, sit still and acknowledge the parts we have been forgetting.

I am sure that at least one issue you have been avoiding or perhaps were not consciously aware of has reared its head over the last few weeks.

And still, many of us have tried to drown out those thoughts and feelings by staying busy in quarantine. And still, we see them popping up.

This is because we are in a global AWAKENING.

This is a time when we are called to heal ourselves so that we in turn heal the collective. This is the time for true growth, when the curtains have been pulled back; the show has stopped. We are no longer actors and actresses going along with a skit. When the audience is gone, and we aren’t told the next line, who are we in that moment?

Every trauma, fear, indecision or false narrative we have been pushing for so long — and the need to live a certain way, be a certain person, have certain goals, be defined by accomplishments, live in the past, the future, whatever comes next — now, all of that is gone.

This moment isn’t defined by out there. It is defined by what is within you. What and who you decide to be, today.

We learn to create a new story. A new purpose. A new path.

It can sound overwhelming, but the more we avoid feeling peace in the unknown, the more we unravel because of outer circumstances rather than filling ourselves with the love and peace we seek. It is only when we embrace the silence and uncertainty — confront who we are without pre-designed measures and daily societal functions — that we truly grow.

And only when we heal in here, do we begin to heal out there.

Let the stillness inspire you. Awaken you. Encourage you to re-define yourself and the truly important aspects of life moving forward. You are invited to take the road less traveled. And fill up that tank of yours with true meaning, not the cheap stuff.

Be patient with yourself. We are all learning through these strange times!

 With love and gratitude,

-The Energy Magazine Team