“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”, Victor Frankl.
Out of the turmoil caused by COVID-19 across the world right now, a collective vulnerability has naturally emerged with multiple individual faces from uncertainty to despair, hope, gratitude, overwhelm, discomfort, humility, love, fear etc. On some days we are experiencing all of them at the same time. We are made inconveniently powerless and suddenly out of control of the unfolding of our lives, and 2020 as we envisioned it, is becoming more unrecognisable by the day. It is natural to experience moments of loosing our footing, loosing our focus or loosing ourselves right now. These times both challenge and encourage us to be more caring and standing incorruptible for ourselves.
See and Embrace our Own Humanity
“Surrender is a journey from the outer turmoil to the inner peace”, Sri Chinmoy
The possibility in front of us may lie in surrendering to the pausing of the world rather than resisting the uncontrollable. COVID-19 is inconveniently slowing down our lives, yet allowing us to pause and silence the outer noise to be present with ourselves, each other and our lives. One of the fruits we can harvest from this downtime is to see ourselves, each other and our lives in a clearer light. Deeper truths; what we love; our gratitude gems; our unresolved issues or wounds that we previously suppressed or forgot; or even dreams we long to make come true – may all rise up in our awareness. Those moments are calls on us to see and embrace new layers of our wholeness as women and the full humanity that make up who we truly are. It is a call to return to ourselves. The key is to compassionately and incorruptibly be with whatever may rise for us right now.
Being with our Truth
“It is only when we silence the blaring sounds of our daily existence that we can finally hear the whispers of truth that life reveals to us, as it stands knocking on the doorsteps of our hearts”, K.T Jong
Once we allow ourselves to see, embrace and be with what is true for us right now, we are also creating a sanctuary of freedom and possibilities to incorruptibly care and stand for ourselves through owning and expressing our truth. Maybe we will discover needs we never really attended to before, or layers of ourselves that we had previously suppressed or ways of sharing what is in our hearts. The key is to practice being with what is true for us right now and respond to our needs with some soothing self care and empowerment rituals. Maybe this means creating a special morning ritual; immersing ourselves into creative playtime with loved ones; carving out time to just be silent with ourselves; establishing new ways of being with and connecting with our family, community and tribe; creating new routines to meet a goal; meditating; singing or dancing; enjoying the bliss of nature and sunlight; exercising; scheduling weekly virtual sundowners or discovering a new hobby or talent etc.
Look Beyond
“She discovered who she was, and the game changed”, Lalah Delia
Even if the vulnerability rises up differently in each and one of us right now, we can all approach it as a gateway back to ourselves. When we allow our vulnerability to be a call to embrace new layers of our wholeness as women and the full humanity that makes up who we truly are, we are taking our power back independently of the outer turmoil. What if our frequent stumbling in the face of these unprecedented COVID-19 times, is part of the emergence of a new world? What if fully embracing and showing up in our unique wholeness makes us part of the ripple effect of goodness unfolding everywhere right now? What if being incorruptible in standing for ourselves actually equals standing together for a better world?
Ubuntu Stories 