Emotional balance during the Covid times!

Hello all,

Namaste! I want to let my blog readers know about my new website-swaroopa.net. Very simple id, not the complicated blog id address. Now to the post.

For the last few weeks, we discussed the spiritual powers waiting for us in case we are ready to access it. We humans don't consider ourselves strong, powerful, spiritual beings. Instead, we tend to live from our mind, considering ourselves very weak, not up to the task of living. So, the spiritual power series was to make ourselves aware how much more we are above the physical body we encompass.

As a whole, humanity is hurting during the pandemic. For the last seventy-some years, the world has not seen a sickness/disease/metaphorical war of these proportions. So, it is natural for humans to wish and hope for things to go back to normal as we had before. The way this can affect us physically, mentally and emotionally made me write this post.

Social creatures- Hunter/gatherers: We humans are social creatures. Even from the days of our cavemen, hunter-gatherer lifestyle, we have liked to be in groups. Think, around 10,000 B.C. in prehistoric times, we were living in caves trying to shield ourselves from the perils of nature and wild animals. In those days, humans in numbers helped to keep ourselves safe and fend off any attack from wild animals. So, the desire to be socially interactive and be close to family/ friends has been deeply embedded in our subconscious mind and may even be in our DNA.

World map of hunter-gatherers, 2000 BCE
Image credits - Wikimedia Commons/ User:Briangotts/maps

Above this, as we were living in forests and among wild animals, the mishap of someone being eaten, falling from a rock ledge, or getting mutilated was very high. In those days, one mistake meant certain death. A person who was sick, wounded, or mutilated can't run if a lion or a tiger was chasing them. So, humans had to protect themselves in numbers.  The chance of a single person getting eaten was very high compared to a group of people. Above this, the forest would have been teeming with poisonous insects and snakes. Pythons can eat you alive, while poisonous snakes can bite and kill. Same way with scorpions and poisonous spiders. Danger was all around.

If, by any chance a member of the group got killed, that again reduced the chance of survival. A healthy male dying led to less protection, and a healthy female dying led to lower chances of adding newer members as babies to the group. So, here as well more members meant more survival. Now, take the case of rival groups. One group of humans may have had to fight with another group of humans. Here also, more numbers meant victory and survival, and so, with every human being, there were others to keep them safe. Like this, for eons, we as humans have survived by virtue of mere numbers and being within a group or tribe.

Agriculture and settling: Next comes the clearing of forests, agriculture, and settling in one place. In this case as well, more numbers meant more survival. For example, elephants could come and decimate the agriculture. As humans were staying in one place, wild animals could find them more easily and could make a dinner out of them. Again, the matter of protecting themselves from wild animals, poisonous insects and rival groups. As people were now involved in agriculture, there was the chance of crops getting destroyed or another time there would be less crops due to drought. That could negatively affect the group as there would be less food to eat and more mouths to feed.

The unhealthy surroundings as well as less food could have brought down the health of humans. This would again lead to less numbers and less survival of the group. Once humans became good with agriculture and settling, villages, towns and later cities evolved. Only much later as humans did we move into logic, common sense and intellectual debates. Spirituality as in Vedic wisdom or philosophy as in Socratic wisdom only started some 3000 to 2500 years ago. Before that, humans fully operated from our emotional mind.

Ground stone from the Neolithic age!
Image credits - José-Manuel Benito Álvarez / CC BY-SA

Even biology says the cerebral cortex or the development of the forebrain was a very recent phenomenon. Among primates including chimpanzees and orangutans, humans have the biggest cerebral cortex, showing how our logic and common sense have evolved very rapidly in the last 5000 years. But before that, it was our hind-brain or emotional wisdom that stood by us in our times of dire need. From here, think about the deep effect the emotional brain has on us. We have discussed the fight or flight tendency humans have that is encoded in our emotional mind many times.

In previous hunter-gatherer times, if a person from the enemy group or a wild animal came to attack us, we had just two options: either to stand our ground—fight—or to move as far away as fast as possible—flight. This we still use when we are put in very stressful situation. So, that is the effect emotional mind and emotions have on us humans. So, social interactions and the safety and happiness it provides to humans are enormous. This was just to show how emotionally wired we human beings are.

Pandemic: Suddenly, we as humanity are finding ourselves in a situation where things as it were before are very much against our health and welfare. Before, whereas we were safe in numbers and groups, now it works against us. We are forced to do exactly the opposite of what we were doing for millennia. We have to isolate and socially distance ourselves. Covid-19 (Coronavirus disease 2019) is highly contagious and can spread through cough or air-borne droplets. The infection can be mild, severe or deadly.

So, here the disease is asking us to behave exactly opposite to how we used to behave for thousands of years. It is asking us to not be a social creature, not to have close contact and not to have interactions. Think of how difficult it is for us to behave in a different way from how we as a group have always behaved? Even our DNA and subconscious mind are working against us, asking us to go back to the previous status quo.

This is the deep uneasiness we all feel. Remember how people were and still are protesting all over the world. This is the innate tendency of the emotional mind that is asking them to protest. Above this, many people are daily waged, hour-to-hour or paycheck-to-paycheck workers. They cannot be at home and not work. The question becomes should I work and earn my money or be at home and save my life. This choice is hurting people deeply: "What should I do? Life/health or food/shelter?" That is a terrible set of options to choose from. How can you choose between hunger and life?

Immune response in a nutshell!
Image credits - Danijela Petrovic, Mariana Seke, Branislava Srdjenovic,
Aleksandar Djordjevic / CC

People, understandably, become emotionally upset and angry. It is a terrible place to be. But in such a scenario, does it help to be angry, upset and stressed out? A stressed mind results in a stressed body. It has been proved many times that stress affects the heart, brain, internal organs and even the immune system. Undoubtedly, when we are in the middle of a serious pandemic, having good health and a top-notch immune system is definitely needed. They are necessary to help us wade through these tough circumstances.

So, it becomes very important to keep our emotions in check, be calm and be balanced. Above this, we are tied up at home. We have always been very free in interactions and going about our day. But suddenly, the whole family is stuck in a small space without much mobility, another scenario where tempers and emotions can fly around. Furthermore, the second we turn on the television, access the internet or open apps on our phone we drown in messages of sickness, deaths and how hospitals/ services are being overwhelmed with Covid-19.

Above this, every business is closed. People cannot get a haircut, can't go out to eat at a restaurant, and can't go to a religious facility, whether it be a temple, church or mosque. We as human beings are being restricted from every side. No, it is not easy. Not at all easy. But, as humans, we have survived a lot:  wild animals, natural disasters, the bubonic plague, dark ages, social, ethnic, and religious persecutions, two world wars, other innumerable wars, Nazi concentration camps, propaganda and religious wars. Humanity has come through many many trials and tribulations. Can't we overcome this as well? How?

Emotional and mental balance: This is the time the Universe as well as the globe are asking the collective consciousness of the human psyche to be strong and mentally resilient. In the last few weeks, I was writing about all the spiritual powers we humans have at our disposal. We only have to decide whether to start accessing these internal strengths we have. No, it is not at all easy. But we are not a weak lot as well. Humanity has gone through more than enough of its struggles. So, what is one more item in that list?

The healing power of nature!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

This is the time to start accessing everything that can keep us emotionally happy and healthy. That emotional happiness would extend towards our mind as well as our body in turn. So, what can we all do? Start dusting off any long lost interests you have always wanted to pursue. You want to pursue some education, independent study? Go ahead! Want to contact school friends through video chats—do it. Always wanted to watch some funny movies—go on. By the way, laughing and being funny does help our emotions tremendously.

Always wanted to watch some stand up comedy, this may be the time. Wanted to start a blog? Go ahead, start writing and publishing. (I find this blog and my writing amazingly helpful during these lock-down times. I am able to encourage and motivate an amazing number of people. Totally graced!) An instrument, painting, gardening, arranging your closets, even picking up more cooking, sewing or art—start doing. Many times in the rush towards the job/studies or in the everyday rush, we never find time to do activities that give deep satisfaction to our heart.

This may be the time to take up something that may even grow into an amazingly new career. Life many times places us many times in circumstances where our physical eyes and common sense cannot figure things out. But our mental eyes and intuitions show us a way that was always in front of our eyes but hidden in plain sight. We already have tonnes of research where it is shown that people who are mentally strong and resilient tend to surf difficult circumstances much more easily than those who break apart at the first sign of trouble.

Also, access the healing heart of nature, the great healer. There is nothing that a quiet walk, spending time in nature and being in the company of trees and greenery can't heal. Nature even helps us clear our emotional and logical mind. Any time the stress and negative news is too much, go for a walk. If a walk is not possible, access the greenery of mother Earth through television, the Internet or images. There is nothing a very calm picture of nature can't heal if we truly understand its spirit and power.

 The calming beauty of flowers!
Image credits - Pixabay.com

Finally, as souls, we came to the Earth to learn deep lessons. Only tough lessons will bring out the very strong being we are underneath. That is what every sacred and spiritual text guides towards. Find that inner being who can bestow an enormous amount of strength and mental grit when very tough circumstances come around. If that inner strong being can't take us through such difficult, tough times, who else will? Also remember, we as a whole are living through the very making of human history. Every single one of us is going to look back upon this period all throughout our lives, even though the emotions etched in our mind may be dark.

So find that amazing, strong, resilient inner being who is just a thought away from every one of us, who is just hiding behind the mind, in the heart. Our very own, unique, magnificent, strong and amazingly compassionate inner being! That powerful inner being will take each of us to the other side of this difficult and tough period of human history.

So, access your inner core and live from your heart! That will definitely help you overcome these tough times for sure.

I wish you a good and safe weekend, and I'll see you next Friday! 😉
  
Next week: Dharma or Ethics - How are we doing?
Image Credits:  Wikimedia Commons and Pixabay