As we move further into living with Covid as an everyday part of our lives, the impact of the pandemic on people’s mental health is becoming increasingly clear. I am seeing so many more clients who are dealing with symptoms related to anxiety and stress and many more young people in my practice. Many people are experiencing fear and the question becomes, how do we move ourselves out of fear going forward?

Tara Brach says, “as long as we are alive, we feel fear. It is an intrinsic part of our makeup, as natural as a bitter cold winter day or the winds that rip branches off trees. If we resist it or push it aside, we miss a powerful opportunity for awakening.”

As long as we are alive, we feel fear. It is an intrinsic part of our makeup, as natural as a bitter cold winter day or the winds that rip branches off trees. If we resist it or push it aside, we miss a powerful opportunity for awakening

-Tara Brach

Fear is a natural reaction. It will always be there, however, sometimes the nervous system gets stuck in the fear response, i.e. the fight, flight, freeze response. In that state, fear isn’t serving our survival, it is keeping us from taking action or problem solving.

When our nervous system is stuck, keeping up the practices that help us to stay steady mentally and emotionally become the most difficult to do. This is the time to keeping practices simple and easy; going for a 5 or 10 minute walk, meditating for 5 minutes, doing the “take in the good” practice I spoke about in my January newsletter of finding something that brings you joy and staying with it for 15 – 30 seconds. Take tiny steps, forgive yourself when you forget and take another tiny step. Each step is a building block to be celebrated.

The phrase, what fires together wires together is so true. The more, even short periods where we put our attention on things that bring us joy or wonder, the more our neural pathways fire together towards the positive, rather than the negative. It requires noticing when we are off in our thoughts during an activity and bringing ourselves back to the present. Walking in the woods is an activity I love and yet, I often miss seeing them. It is a practice to look around when I’m walking, to take in all the beauty surrounding me, to stop and see what is currently popping up through the spring ground (like the cover image of the snow drop) or the amazing patterns in old tree trunks, like the one above. I’ve started taking more pictures on my walks as that means I have to stop and spend a moment really taking in what I am looking at. It is that continued pausing to take it in the moments of joy that makes the difference over time.

In his book Awakening Joy, James Baraz says that setting an intention around awakening joy is the first step, that lasting joy doesn’t come from our external environment because it is always changing. He talks about awakening joy being “about training the mind and heart to live in a way that allows us to be truly happy with our life as it is right now”, that [joy] is not a place you arrive at but rather the result of training your mind to ride with ease and flexibility the roller coaster of life”.

The greatest gift of NeurOptimal® brain training in my life has been the increase in my capacity to ride the ups and downs of everyday life with much more ease and flexibility. At a nervous system or electrical level, NeurOptimal® sessions help to keep my system more in balance, i.e. it’s not activated all the time, so I’m much less irritated by things that used to set me off. And, NeurOptimal® is one tool or practice. I also use mindfulness, exercise, and my joy practice this year to keep strengthening those neural pathways.

What are your go to practices?  Are there any new ones that you can slowly incorporate into your life? It is not about doing it perfectly, it is about setting the intention and some days you will be able to follow through and on other days, you won’t. That is what a practice is, something to always keep returning to and strengthening over time. May the awakening of the earth, the new blossoms and returning leaves captivate your attention and wonder in the days to come.