A Day at a time, The virus between us …. connecting, 4/4/2020

A Day at a Time – A Daily Blog of Life in Lockdown

Saturday morning, and first thing Qi Gong. Now feeling strong, healthy and positive having activated inner healing energy. My intention, if I live beyond this pandemic is to continue with this practice. Perhaps, it is easy for me to settle into and enjoy it so much because I practised Tai Chi for 4 years in Paris 20 years ago. My lovely Tai Chi instructor, Ji is Chinese; he had poor French and mine was even poorer at the time, but we got on well.

Yesterday as I was walking the dogs in the fields, I stopped to chat from a safe distance with some village neighbours, whilst the dogs sniffed each other’s behinds. They are both musicians and were telling me that in their cul-de-sac, at midday every day, they go outside their house to play music and the neighbours; adults and kids come out to join in. This activity, they said, is reconnecting all the families, brings a little bit of structure to the day and feels so joyful.

There is so much sadness, suffering and loss but there is also evidence of so much that is positive not least the way people are connecting, supporting and helping each other and people in their community. Many elderly people living alone are feeling more connected and cared about than they did before Covid-19. There are a record number of people volunteering. We are all in this together.

Hint: Enjoy the benefits of connecting with others

Practice: Connecting Practice

When you feel yourself starting to become anxious or sad treat it as an opportunity to do something different. Make a definite shift in your posture. Say these words to yourself – lots of people are feeling like this. Breathe in for yourself and all the others in the world feeling this way and as you breathe out send relief, send kindness, send out to yourself and everybody else what is most needed. Breathe out with the intention of healing the situation for yourself and others. It may help to say words like kindness, love, choosing what feels right for you. Breathe in noticing tension in the body, tightness in chest, whatever the sensations are that you are feeling. Focus on breathing in and opening and breathing out and opening. Taking this attitude of opening to others who are experiencing the same.
This practice takes courage, but it helps us notice that we maybe closing in our ourselves in fear, anxiety or sadness which feels isolating. Remembering there are probably hundreds of thousands, or millions of people in the world feeling the same way right now and allowing this common humanity, this suffering to be met with compassion.