After two weeks of reading/hearing all news and fake news and jokes, and seeing a different response in different countries it seemed right to take a moment to state what we understand about this pandemic of Coronavirus 19 (Covid-19) and what we can suggest for prevention.
Covid-19 : It is the most recently discovered form of Coronaviruses (a range of respiratory infections that affect humans and animals and include the common cold, the flu, SARS…) this one broke in Wuhan China in Dec 2019.
Most common symptoms are fever, tiredness and dry cough. but on the chart you can see that some symptoms are different in cold or flu.
Our source is World Health Organization and this is the link to the Frequently Asked Questions https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/q-a-coronaviruses.
We at Sound Shiatsu are rooted in the UK with origins and loved ones in Europe and in America. Because we are facing a pandemic situation each country has to present their own coping politics. In the UK and the USA we are recommended to do social distancing and avoid gatherings, work from home… in European countries (the epicentre of the pandemic) there is confinement and lockdown. We see people complain about their country’s actions or inactions and anxiety growing with compulsive erratic behaviours in shops and on social medias.
But we also witness incredible acts of solidarity in the local communities that remind us that we are all one people (and what happens to one affects all). and there is beautiful shared material on social medias to help us reconnect to ourselves and others.
We believe that more than ever it is a time to decide on what we want to do for ourselves (with the respect for the rules where you live).
Our top seven advices for what to do today (and every day) :
- One : follow the instructions given in the country where you live, there are differences, but there are also common simple ones! i.e. Wash your hands thoroughly as often as possible, cough in your elbow, blow your nose and throw the tissue away, don’t wear a mask unless you are infected or working with infected people, self isolate if you have a symptom or are at risk.
- Two : Listen / watch the news once or twice a day to keep a minimum connection to what is happening where you live and around the world, and ask for help if you need it, but please disconnect your phone alerts and mute your whatsapp groups so that you have ample space to suppress anxiety. excess stress is the first cause of reduced immunity.
- Three : take natural supplements : echinacea (a plant that stimulates immunity) drops or tablets, propolis (made by bees to protect their hive against invasion) as a prevention (those are examples, ask a nutrition specialist) and avoid painkillers if you can (ibuprofen and paracetamol to suppress fever is not a good idea, fever is the body fighting infection, doctors have no other medicine to fight this infection). No government will tell you but if you look at the shelves in the health food shop you will realise that you are not the only one with this idea…
- Four : practise gentle exercise to keep movement in the body and to strengthen your lungs. At Soundshiatsu during a session we usually show a series of do-in exercises to help stimulate our immunity.
- gentle exercises to boost our immunity (today we share this chigong video by Peter Deadman that is directly addressing the lung energy which is responsible for our immunity, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqn70lirWKc&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR1ksqXkOSZJ4gIIBSZN2qLYksrUkxHw3reUcc3m4Yoo7hxLntUXe03sOP4)
- Five : make time for gentle belly breathing exercise that will help calm you (see above video and previous blog article https://www.sound-shiatsu.com/anytime-of-year-breathe-2)
- Six : meditate, as in sit down or lay down and breathe slower and deeper and witness what is present for you without attaching to it. Do it on your own or follow a youtube or an app meditation or a whatsapp group if one is available to you. It will help calm and center/ground you and reconnect you with your intuition. ”To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders” Lao Tseu.
- Seven : face your fear : joking and laughing is a good coping mechanism but it prevents one from facing reality and one’s fears. the ultimate fear is that we are mortals and that we fear dying before we have lived or acomplished our life mission. So today – like any other day – is a chance to feel what life is for us here and now, remember that we have the right to live according to our own rules (as long as we respect the law and other beings) and that we have all the knowledge available within ourselves (or can find the help to reconnect with it).
We suggest a starting point for today’s meditation found on a Facebook group called ”Au coeur de la vie”, a text called ”The True Power” (freely translated from Isabelle Padovani, ”La force veritable”)
The true power or force is choosing to welcome all of our flaws, all of our fragility, all of our vulnerability… When we fully welcome our humanity, we encounter the Divine that we are… It is only because we behave with tenderness and care towards our ‘Me-child’ that we unveil our Divine Mother-Father that has always been there… So if today brings a tough situation to face, rather than to ”be strong” or ”be positive”, open your heart to what is happening inside you and welcome it with grace. As you would welcome a newborn being, welcome your fear, your worry, your sadness… Experience what this welcoming brings to your ‘Me-child’, allowing it to be as it is. Then, turn your attention towards you and the part of you that could afford to allow your ‘Me-child’ to be and feel the space, the tranquility… To experience this process is to access absolute serenity : the kind that does not seek to transform what is but just allows us to experience it fully. This is the greatest power or force any human being can achieve, from the heart of the fragility of their human being condition…
