Catch the Corona moment!

“I miss my friends,” the seven year old said. “I don’t know why I can’t play with them.”

“I’m stir-crazy!” Grumbled a man we passed in the street.

“It’s fantastic,” she laughed, “I’ve the time to do all the little jobs I can’t think about when I’m working!”

“I’m loving the chance to be without pressure, to sink in to myself and my home.”

Until the end we will remember this period when much of the world is in lock-down, it is unique, even during the Spanish Flu Oxford University, for example, continued as normal. Our attitude today defines our home-imprisonment, it will also define how we emerge when this is all over.

Being locked-in is a chance to reset ourselves, This is no naval-gazing moment, but a magical time to appreciate the ever-changing sky, bird song free of traffic, the glint upon that person’s face two metres distant in the food-shop queue. It is a period when we can appreciate our senses, sink in to smell, dive into the wonder of our ears, let our skin inform us of the world we inhabit, allow taste to glow our meals, enjoy the myriad of data our eyes collect.

End the stressed out being forever pushed by events, kill the consequential consumer, find that self unencumbered by what tech-giants, industrialists and governments have convinced us is life about. It is a brief pause, a time to see that life itself provides us with the satisfaction they’ve all promised (to their own advantage). Lock-in may diminish our earning power, may threaten our financial security, may thwart our social lives, but we have no option and to feel put-out by this is to ramp up stress.

Cortisol, the main chemical released by stress, affects our body’s ability to ward off infection. Stress also stirs up the brain/mind, we react to situations less clearly, frustration increases, irritation and anger are not far away, our over-loaded system makes things worse. Soldiers crossing freezing rivers are taught exercises to calm their responses, those who don’t get it are more prone to die from panicking hearts.

Removing ourselves from natural negative responses to disaster, we spot its advantages. Lock-in, gives us a chance to learn great life-skills. To change our attitude, to see we don’’t need to be slaves to the consumer factory system, that pleasure isn’t in things, but in life, life as we live it with attention and joy.

And joy is just one mindset away. Yes, it is that simple! So smile, for smiling (even faking it) starts the process by fooling the brain into a positive cycle. Sit or stand tall, which increases testosterone by up to 18% (women need the big T too). Belly breathe deeply, hold it for ten heart-beats, SLOWLY let it out over ten. This is an exercise those soldiers learn, athletes too. It gradually increases lung strength, lung capacity. If done regularly for several weeks, it tricks the body that you are at altitude, hence it releases more oxygen carrying white blood cells, so you feel better.

Well, there we are, there’s loads of time to shift, to become yourself again, to gain your own power. Enjoy these weeks at home. You’ll never have such a chance ever again. Good luck! See you next weekend.