Panic is a funny thing. As a mental durability teacher, my job is to teach people the difference between reacting from a place of fear/emotion and responding from a place of clarity, calm, and wholeness.
And even I felt the pull last week to react quickly and rashly to the changing landscape. Immediately, I felt the impulse to scramble to minimize the damages to my business income.
And as I speak to other wellness professionals in a similar position, it appears there are two extremes in terms of how folks are handling it.
Extreme A is to do nothing, to be paralyzed by fear and your own belief that you are incapable of doing anything about what’s happening — sitting there with a list of internalized reasons why you’re powerless and unable to pivot.
Extreme B is to take extreme actions packing their schedules with offerings, taking any position that’s offered to them even if the pay isn’t right, and all of this is happening at the expense of the host’s wellness.
Then there’s the group in the middle — fighting through fear, uncertainty, and anxiety over and over and over again to return to the present moment where they can respond appropriately, in a way that can be proud of, and in a way that honors the messages they teach to others every single day.
Extreme circumstances don’t necessarily require extreme measures but they do require extreme presence. And they require a willingness to rumble with the discomfort of sitting with what we feel without needing to discharge it with a rush to extreme, poorly thought-out action.
Feel the emotion, acknowledge it, but you get to choose whether you’re driving the bus or your fear is. “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Viktor E. Frankl
As we move into another week, take a moment to consider whether the path you’re currently on is an unsustainable reaction or an intentional response. Only you can know for sure.
You’ll get through this. But you have to choose how. Need help? Message me. Love you.