What Coronavirus is Asking of Us; A Survival Guide for this Time
Never before, in the history of mankind, have we been impacted on such a global level. No war, no virus, no depression – nothing has touched every single person globally in the way that we are now being challenged.
And while not every single person feels challenged or threatened by the virus itself, the response to the perceived threat of the virus does touch on everyone in one way or another. The lockdowns have impacted our economy, food systems, and transport supply chains. Hospitals that were operating at near capacity during “normal” times are now stretched thin in critical care areas, but near empty and furloughing staff in other areas. Our tranditional educational system is shut down entirely; parents, teachers, and most importantly children, are being forced to develop some adaptive strategies in the midst of chaos.
And that’s just on the surface. While some of us are “just staying home,” there’s a whole world underneath that, where families are struggling to survive and the Government systems in place to help, such as unemployment and healthcare, are failing. Mental support systems have shut down, so people that struggled to exist in a “normal” world (used here to denote “typical/expected” versus “ideal”) are floundering in a sea of chaos and stress. No money, food to be bought, bills stacking up to be paid, fear about a virus, and so on, do nothing to alleviate the struggles of anxiety, depression, substance abuse, and more, that already existed.
And the media – oh the media! And our government as well! That they have done the opposite of their responsibilities and what we have entrusted to them. Calm, structured, rational responses in the face of chaos, ensuring the people are getting adequate, appropriate, factual information. This we have not seen. And while some will claim that this was the nature of the deadly virus that came whipping in so fast and furious, I will argue and say that very argument is itself a product of the very narrative being delivered. When we dig underneath the surface, and indeed not very far, we start to see how conflicting the narrative is, how much it doesn’t make rational sense. How much they’re really promoting fear rather than calm rationality, delivered with a moment of pause beforehand. These people we have entrusted with our physical, emotional, and mental welfare are whipping the populace up into a frenzy to the point people are turning on one another in ever greater numbers and with increasing severity.
So I will stop there, as which narrative you believe regarding the Coronavirus is at this point moot, if you can simply see that something profound is happening in our midst. Whether you attribute that to the fact that you believe this virus is deadly, or our government and media are mounting perhaps the largest mind-manipulation operation in the history of mankind, or anything in between, does not matter. Because what does matter, what is clear is that the sheer size and magnitude of what is happening right now indicates this is divine intervention.
Divine intervention happens in exactly this way – it touches everyone. It touches everyone right where it needs to, in the way it needs to. That’s why some are profoundly fearful of the virus itself. Some believe the virus is manmade or genetically manipulated. Others are angry at what they perceive is government ineptitude, overreach, or manipulation. Other see this as a mechanism to surreptitiously insert various agendas into our society. Choose your story; they all have validity in the eyes of the beholder and that is what matters. What is clear is that we are being upended and profoundly challenged. Our deepest fears are being forced to the surface. Other issues that we have with power and authority are being illuminated. What’s more is that all the systems that we’ve placed so much value on and trust in are being exposed in every single way that they are faulty, frail, and inept. All the way from our government to the media, to our healthcare system, our educational system, and the way we care for one another and our planet. The extent and magnitude of this exposure can only be divine in nature.
From now on, none of us will escape doing our work. The illusions have been shredded. Our little (or big) shadows and monsters that we kept locked in the basement, those that we believed to be locked up out of sight, and certainly out of mind, those that have really been running the show the whole time while we dallied in the comfortable daydreams; they have been released. We can see them now. I see some still ducking and covering their eyes desperately, but that can only last so long. We are being shown. And while it is still up to each of us to choose to see, as that is the nature of free will, it is going to become increasingly difficult and painful to choose to remain blind.
So let’s hit a pause button now as I’ve really only been stating the obvious.
What does it mean to move forward? How do we move through this transition?
Every transition has a period of intense chaos, and that is what we’re in the midst of. We’ve had these periods before, on a much smaller scale. Some have experienced few of these, others many. On my own journey and through these periods of turmoil, when I ask, “What can I do?” the answer is ALWAYS – heal yourself.
Below are the messages I’ve gotten through my own divine guides, and which have since been confirmed numerous times in very diverse ways. Many people are getting this same survival guide.
1. The message is clear and unwavering. We need to embrace our own Free Will, which has been a profound gift to us. That means this:
It means each of us taking responsibility for ourselves. Many, many of us, often through no real fault of our own, are children walking around in adult bodies. We’ve suffered trauma, we lacked the appropriate nurturing we needed as children, or we were simply deprived of the process by which a person develops from child to adult, whether through initiation or just simple support of us as a human being first, child second. And while those things are legitimate and real, it is time to line up our survival archetypes – our children, our victims, our saboteurs, and our prostitutes – and say, “Hey. You did a great job of protecting me when I needed it. But I have this now. I need you to take a seat at the back of the bus. You can speak up when you have something important to say, but I’m in charge of all thoughts, decisions, actions, and behaviors from this point forward.”
2. Make a commitment to love yourself (every single aspect of yourself no matter how harshly you judge it), nurture yourself, heal yourself
– AND! –
YOU are now responsible for every single thing you do from here on out.
Whatever you believe, whatever you think, whatever you say, whatever you do. No one can make you do anything, believe anything. No one can heal you. No one can love you in a way that will fix all your broken or fractured pieces, even the people that did the breaking to begin with. EXCEPT YOU. YOU CAN do these things! This means we need to examine and break-down (re-design or re-work) every co-dependent relationship we have. This applies to every single relationship where we’ve given over “authority” (power). Who are the people you trust over yourself? Listen to how you speak. Often we give that power away to our spouses, healthcare practitioners, or our government. Any human that we “worship.” Also examine those you take power FROM; those that you interact with but whom you don’t listen to, give to, those that you are dismissive of or condescending to. Every single one of us have these relationships in our lives. You may have a preponderance of one over the other type, but I guarantee you will find both if you look through a very honest and humble lens. ALSO NOTE that when I say “break down,” that doesn’t mean get rid of the person! The relationship itself, however, must be reworked. Boundaries need to be put into place, energies cleared. Often this involves forgiveness and some sort of gratitude. Expectations need to be examined; what do you expect them to do for you, or how do you expect them to be, act, etc.? What is coming to light right now is how many people are really seeking out father and mother authority figures to help them heal and fill up that which was denied to them as children; this seeking manifests in co-dependent relationships. A sense of safety, a sense of being relevant and worthy. We’ve mistakenly placed this role onto other humans, often humans who are struggling with their own issues.
So you are now taking back your own power, your own authority, your own sovereignty. This involves a measure of trust and a lot of love and compassion for yourself. Trust is a tricky one, and that’s where item 3. below comes in – Prayer.
3. Pray. And while I do not presume to tell anyone how to pray or what to say, I do know this prayer needs to be different, perhaps, than prayers you’ve uttered before. This prayer doesn’t simply say, “Please help me.” This prayer also contains a declaration that says to the God/dess and others that are in positions that they can help us, “I get it now. I understand.” This is a prayer of CO-CREATION with the divine. It says, “I’m no longer a child. I’m a divine being in my own right, one that can and is willing to take responsibility for myself.” I know that this term – CO-CREATION – needs to become an integral part of every aspect of our hearts, our minds, our behaviors and actions.
(See below for an example of my own prayer; you can use it, in its entirety or modified, if you wish until your own prayer emerges from your heart.)
Dear Creator, and all the beings that watch over me, guide me, and protect me day in and day out. I get it. I hear you. Free will – which I have struggled with so profoundly over the entirety of my life – on the one handed wanting complete control, on the other expecting you to cover all the bases for me, making things easy, expecting a safety net – I understand now. I can see where my ego thirsted for importance and control while I allowed my spirit to wither because I resisted that which is my essence. I can see my power – and my responsibilities – and I fully acknowledge each of these. I can see now where I allowed my righteousness to reign and take over connection with other human beings. I can see how I took in from the external world and made it my own, rather than listening to my internal guidance and projecting that out in the world. I gave that external authority power over my thoughts, my actions, my beliefs; I was too lazy to seek out my own knowing, to face what I knew didn’t feel right in my gut, to make amends where possible. I’ve allowed myself to be distracted for a long, long time, with things that do not matter now and certainly will not matter once I leave this world; I’ve been bitter, resentful, angry, jealous and fearful, and I’ve resisted paths I knew I needed to be on. I acknowledge these things and ask for your gift of Grace and guidance as I move forward. Help me to help myself. I will not expect you to hold me any longer; I ask that you teach me how to stand, how to walk, how to speak to others in a way that is kind and loving. I claim my own sovereignty, my own authority, and ask that you be my ever-present advisor and mentor. Please continue to whisper in my ear, keep my eyes clear, and my heart ever open, honest, and humble. With profound love and gratitude to you, and to myself. Amen.
4. On a daily basis, there are a variety of things you need to do. Just as if you’re trying to rebuild your health after a prolonged or intense illness, you need to rebuild your spirit. This becomes a practice that includes compassion and patience (with yourself and others), breathing, taking time to nourish yourself (healthy foods, exercise, sleep), doing things you enjoy, finding quiet time to sit in meditation, prayer, or just to ponder. This also involves baby steps into questioning your responses and reactions to things, your beliefs, and your expectations. Ask honest, challenging questions of yourself. Research and dig to find answers. Be CURIOUS and OPEN. Again, this is a process that takes time, perhaps a lifetime. But every step we take leads to a different world, a world that the divine has given us a glimpse of in the midst of all the chaos. A world that is cleaner, slower and less rushed, a populace that can come together for a common cause. We need this world and we need to keep taking the steps that get us there, even if it feels painfully slow, unsure, and scary. As we come together, the pace will quicken and we, finally, as global community, will reach that for which we have been seeking and yearning.
May we each find our peace and healing. ?
Wishing you all the best.
I would like to acknowledge some of the people that influenced or confirmed the content here outside of my own guides (thank you!); including Caroline Myss, Elizabeth Gilbert, Alex Collier, Daria Justyn, and Jessica Mangum. Along with countless others: friends and confidants, that have sat with me in places of contemplation and discomfort, and those that have offered their own teachings along my path that have integrated in such a way that I can longer distinguish them from my own. My thanks to all those that have offered their own perspectives and insights in an effort to help others along their journey.
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WHAT APOLOGIES ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
What apologies are you still waiting for?
It’s an easy thing to say we need to practice forgiveness, but it can be a hard thing to execute. Sometimes just getting the apology we’ve been wanting is the pivot point to moving forward into resolving and releasing the resentment. Desired apologies can be easy to identify when we consider ourselves to be the victim. But if the event exists in the shadow layer of our psyche, we may not even be consciously aware that we’re waiting for an apology. What happens when we have resentments that we’re not even conscious of? And how do we get apologies from people that are unaware, unwilling, or just not around to apologize to us?
Forgiveness and a subsequent letting go is critical to our health and wellbeing. Every time we hold on to a resentment, whether we’re conscious of it or not, we create an energetic sinkhole in our biology. This means that a substantial portion of the energy we have coming into our being gets diverted into our resentments. This leaves our physical body depleted of the energy it needs to stay strong, focused, and primed for repair. Over time, we may find our sleep disrupted or excessive; we may begin to eat foods that are calming (comfort foods) or quick energy boosts (sugar, caffeine) but that lack nutritional value; we may turn to substances, such as alcohol, that give the illusion of “all is well;” or we may begin to act in compulsive ways that ultimately sabotage our longterm wellbeing (excessive shopping, engaging in relationships that we know are not in our best interests, and other risky behavior).
Forgiveness, quite frankly, is the most SELFISH thing you can do. Because it is the GREATEST thing you can do for yourself.
Caroline Myss
Just a reminder, please do not dive into any event that still triggers you in extreme ways without the assistance of someone qualified to provide you with support.
Forgiveness does NOT mean you condone what’s been done. What it DOES mean is that you have released the energetic charge of the event. This often only happens once you’ve attempted to change your perspective in such a way that you might be able to understand what might have compelled the events that occurred. Most often, people get really hung up on the why and how of the event. How could someone do that to me? Why could they do something so hurtful or horrible? Those answers are often impossible to obtain. Even if we can ask those answers, the answers we get often do not make sense to us. In order to get around this “hook,” we can switch the questions slightly. Could you imagine ANY circumstances, no matter how unrealistic or repulsive, in which you MIGHT have acted in such a way? Obviously, this can become difficult the more damaging and violating the precipitating event was, so by no means is this exercise easy to do. More generally, you might reflect on times where you yourself were hurting or in pain, and in turn, inflicted pain on another, whether intentionally or unintentionally. Just changing the focus of the why and how questions often allows the hook to release in such as way that we can move towards release and healing. The most humbling of truths is that we are ALL, at one time or another, capable of inflicting pain or hurt on another human being. (!! Please note, this is NOT in any way encouraging one to take on responsibility, guilt, or shame for the event. This exercise isn’t implying in any way that someone deserves or “got what was coming to them” for past or potential actions.)
In some circumstances, the above exercise may be impractical or impossible to imagine. It may not serve you to dive into the event in detail, but rather to adopt a generalized stance that in some way, this trial provided an opportunity for you to understand forgiveness and healing at a whole new level. Can you identify any good that came from the event? Whether it’s awareness and understanding, the potential of emotional growth through forgiveness and healing, or the ability to offer empathy and support to others going through painful events themselves; all are positive outcomes that deserve to be identified. Again, this exercise can help release the “hook” that is preventing us from moving forward.
True forgiveness is breaking the emotional charge and energetic bond to our painful past, whatever that might be. What you’re left with instead is a memory, and a memory without emotional charge is called wisdom.
Joe Dispenza
I’ll outline below an iterative process to release resentments. Again, please use discernment in how deeply you go into an event. You can release at a higher level of of consciousness without diving into the details of the event; this process is NOT about reliving trauma.
- Keep a running list of people and/or events that have hurt you. As you work through the process below, if you feel an improvement in your emotional response, you will cross through the name/event. If it comes up again, even if it’s reduced in intensity, you’ll add the name back. The purpose of the list is simply to help you understand how much energy you have tied up in past events. It also helps you uncover events or people that are more subconscious. Don’t be surprised to find YOUR OWN NAME on the list several times. (When a name or event comes up multiple times, be sure to add both so you’re clear on what you’re working on.) This list is intended to be EMPOWERING, not defeatist. The goal here is AWARENESS.
- When you feel relatively calm, find a quiet place to meditate or reflect inwardly. A good time for many people may be first thing in the morning before events of the day add to your emotional state, or after a session of exercise in which you’ve been able to disperse excess/disruptive energy. (If you’ve had a night of poor rest or intense dreams, first thing in the morning may not be ideal.)
- For a few minutes, breathe deeply and slowly. Feel your body sink into the floor, and down through into the earth. Begin to slowly repeat the manta, “I am safe.” If, at any time during this process you find yourself feeling emotionally triggered, you can come back to this step.
- Set an intention that you will attempt embody and sit within your “highest self.” This highest self has a greater capacity for perspective, compassion, and forgiveness. This is a good time to call in any spiritual support you feel you need; angels, ancestors, guides, ascended masters, or others.
- When you feel ready, call up in your mind a single* person involved. Imagine them only at the level you’re comfortable. If their image feels triggering, you can picture them only as a vague form, or envision only their name. Remember through this process to breath and state “I am safe” if it feels necessary to do so. Also reach out and feel the loving support surrounding you anytime you feel alone, vulnerable, or unprotected. (*If there was a group of people, you CAN work with the collective group at once, but it’s often easier to work one to one.)
Once you’ve called the person/event into consciousness, you may talk to them just as you would face to face. Express what you need to express, and ask questions you need answers to. If you don’t receive a response, respect that the answer is ultimately unhelpful and not in your highest good, and attempt to move on without it. Once you’ve said what you need to say, ask them to apologize. You will get an apology.
An even more empowering exercise can be your awareness of any involvement you may have had in the event. Few events are solely ALL one person’s fault; often we act in ways that contributed to the event in some way, even if small. Perhaps we just regret that we didn’t see the signs sooner and disengage or walk away. This is about seeing clearly what role you may or may NOT have played in an event; this is NOT about accepting blame that isn’t yours to accept. If you played any part, then it’s empowering to acknowledge this with your own returned apology back to the person. This is less about claiming responsibility and more about saying, “I’m sorry that you and I, at a soul level, had to struggle through this event.” Perhaps you’re upset with yourself in some way, for not seeing the warning signs, or not responding in the way you wish you could have. Again, you can add a compassionate apology to yourself as well. - See that there’s an energetic connection, or cord, between you and the person standing with you. This energetic connection fuels a pattern that you may see positioned somewhere along the energetic cord. This pattern can be considered a memory, but might also be something more substantial, like an ancestral or generational pattern. Take a moment to observe the cord, particularly where it’s attached to your body, the characteristics of the cord such as its diameter, color, etc., and observe the pattern that exists. How robust does the pattern appear to be?
- State the intention that you would like this cord to be unplugged and removed from your body. You may choose to the cut the cord yourself or ask for one of your spiritual support team to do it for you. Recite the following:
– [Name or Event] – At this time, I choose to sever/cut/release this energetic cord that exists between us. I am reclaiming my energy and my power. I withdrawal energetic support of any patterns that existed between us. I am now energetically and spiritually free of [person] and/or [event].
Watch what happens to the cord and pattern now that they are unplugged or released from your energetic field. As your energy is released/withdrawn, the cord and pattern should lose their vibrancy. You may see them disintegrate and break apart, falling to the earth to transmuted, transformed, and recycled.
As an extra step, you may ask your spiritual team to come and ensure there are no lingering remnants of either the cord or the pattern.
I encourage you to keep notes of any messages or insights received during these sessions. You may need to repeat the exercise multiple times for highly charged events. Please remember that your safety and sense of well-being is of highest importance. Highly charged or traumatic events may call for a neutral, supportive person to help you work through these or similar exercises.
Stay tuned; a You Tube meditation walking through the steps above is being recorded and will be available soon!