Zoe is a blogger for Psychology Today and she has been writing weekly posts about COVID-19. We’re sharing them here. We hope they are helpful to you during this pandemic.
Last year, the organization I work for was gifted “A Year of Mindfulness” course. It was deeply meaningful for our staff, board, and faculty.
As the course was winding down, we implemented a practice at our weekly staff meetings, and now we begin our check-ins by answering two questions:
1. How are you feeling emotionally and physically?
2. How are you bringing mindfulness to work?
These questions have been very powerful for our team. We connect with one another and address each other’s challenges with empathy. This not only builds a supportive team, but also allows us to identify feelings that may potentially impede strategic thinking and action so that we stay clear, efficient, positive, and collaborative.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, such questions can serve a very important purpose. They offer the opportunity to bring our attention to our mental and physical states and to mindfully observe in order to be less reactive and more responsive in the face of such uncertain and frightening times.
I invite you to take a moment right now to ask and answer these questions for yourself.
1. How are you feeling emotionally and physically in this moment?
2. How are you bringing mindfulness to your mental and physical state each day so that you can make wise, responsible, caring choices during this disease outbreak?
If you’re like me, these questions will be helpful for creating equilibrium and equanimity during a time when you may feel out of control.
If you are someone who hasn’t been affected by closures, work changes, or loss of income, life might be proceeding largely as usual, even if things aren’t quite normal. But you may still be experiencing dread about what’s coming.
