Coping with fear in times of COVID-19

The second wave of Covid has not only choked our lungs, but also fogged our minds. When one sees the mayhem of this proportion, something inside the human consciousness changes.

After all, this kind of upheaval of mankind reformed Ashoka the Great, who after the Kalinga War changed his life course and became spiritual in his pursuits. Usually, to this kind of mental anguish we see health issues like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorders and attention deficit disorders.

When our mind weeps, the body suffers and our mind further unbalances our body with diseases like acidity, headaches, nervous breakdown to name a few. Each Soulprint (individual unique soul) resorts to the pressures in their own way ranging from indulging in alcohol indulgence to drugs abuse or to even committing suicide. 

In modern times we can search for the spiritual answers to alleviate our mental and emotional meltdowns. Spirituality can teach us how to keep calm when the whole world around seems to be falling. It can balance your body, mind and soul which is the key to attainment of peace and happiness at all times. Here are five simple truths on spiritual wisdom that can help you attain a peaceful state.

1. Fear can be conquered by faith. Having faith is not the same as having blind faith. Faith works on the science of the ‘placebo’ effect. This is a medically proven fact that when we believe a medicine to be the cure, it actually cures the body.

Similarly, when we truly believe in the existence of the higher power, we feel relieved of the heaviness of eventualities that rests on our shoulders. Like a parent who would always love his children, the higher power is always compassionate for all the souls on the planet.

The Big Bang Theory puts the probability of life formation to less than 0.001 percent and yet we are all here! Hence some power has always been watching over us and when we believe in its existence we foster faith in ourselves. Faith is the connecting wire of your soul to the higher existence. Lesser the faith, more the fear and vice versa.

2. Know that anxiety is a self-created phenomenon. Anxiety exists when you live in future tense and not in the present moment. Past is dead, future never comes, so your actions are carried on in the present moment.

But we cheat ourselves and start conjuring expectations and threats in the non-existent future. Our mind over-thinks and falls under the weight of its own contemplation. There is a difference between being worried and being concerned about your future.

In one you use your mind and in the other you lose your mind. When we live in the present moment we do not feel anxious but rather energised. This is true for all the animals on the planet who don’t save food or make provisions as for them there is no concept of tomorrow. Life is to live and not to think of living.  

3. Self-doubt is the enemy of your intelligence. Do not doubt your intelligence. Your mind is your biggest asset only when you control it and keep it focused. When you find yourself doubting your thoughts and actions, you disbalance yourself.

Who do you think is creating doubts against your own thoughts? It is your mind. This means that your mind is out of control moving in a spiral path like a dog trying to bite its own tail.

However, when you trust yourself and foster confidence that you are going to take the best decision for yourself and the people around you, in any given circumstance, you realise that you might fail but you are satisfied with your performance. You know you will make the best out of the playing cards dealt to you.

You might not be dealt a winning hand but you would only know that when you play the hand to the best of your ability. Your mental acumen works best when in balance. 

4. Your mind unbalances your body and that causes diseases. Diseases like acidity or headaches are caused by inadequate flow of energy in your body. For instance, when we are anxious, our body gets into the flight or fight response and our heart would start to beat faster.

When we experience this state while sitting at home, our body gets unbalanced due to this extra energy flow in it. Knowingly or unknowingly you neglect your body by taking your awareness away from it.

You need to treat your body like a loyal companion by listening to it, taking care of it and not over-burdening it with unrealistic expectations, and give it assurance of a brighter future. Just by being aware of this process you can save your body from harming itself. 

5. External environment affects you only when you permit it. Know that all news is biased and you are responsible for what you watch and expose yourself to! It is a known fact that ‘sensational news’ has more takers than news on ‘good doers’.

For every bad or wrong act reported, there are thousands of good ones too that you are not told about. When we consistently give hateful vibrations even to a ‘deaf’ plant, we find it starts to wither away. Don’t you think the human body has much more sense and sensibility?

So, you need to not only be cognisant about what you feed your senses but also need to build an invisible impermeable skin around yourself in order to not let the disruptive vibrations enter your body through news, media, social chatter or any external source. 

When you are in a state of balance, you can channelise your energies into productive ways to elevate your existence. The spiritual way is to engage with the Universe by having conversations with it. Prayer is talking to the Universe and meditation is listening to the Universe.

These two are very powerful tools that you can use to not only find your true self but also lay down the path of your journey ahead. By connecting to the bigger existence, we let go of all our smaller worries.   

(The writer is a life coach and author of Awaken Your Soulprint, published by Rupa Publications)