The Healing Crisis
I want to share something that can initially look very discouraging but if we approach it in the right way, can bring forth a healing we have never imagined before. Yes, we’re in the middle of the most major crisis our country has faced in a long, long time. It shows up with millions of people getting COVID-19 and hospitals and their staff overwhelmed. It is also an economic crisis with people unable to put food on the table or pay their rent/mortgage.
The crisis that gets the least attention is the mental health crisis. Mental Health America released its annual report on the state of mental health in the US, showing that there is a 1.5 million increase of people reporting mental health challenges over last year’s report. And that is just the people who reported their mental health challenges!
In the middle of this pandemic, we are experiencing an epidemic of anxiety and depression, oftentimes fueled by loneliness and isolation, which come from not being able to gather with family and friends like we use to. You may very well be one of these people. Mental health challenges always rise in the face of uncertainty, and we’re certainly living in uncertain times. Many of us are also mourning for the people whose lives were taken by COVID-19, and the lost opportunities, the lost businesses, and the lost hopes and dreams.
We’re all touched in some way during this pandemic and it is very helpful to see the bigger picture. This isn’t going to last forever. Nothing lasts forever – no thought, no feeling, no experience. I know, really intense states of mind say they will last forever but they never do. The more you awaken, the more you see that states of mind are just like clouds passing through the vast sky of who you really are. And it is very helpful to remember that no matter how cloudy it is, the sun never stops shining.
It can be very helpful to understand that having our minds unsettled and upset is a normal reaction to how much our lives have been turned upside down. But if what you’re experiencing makes it difficult or even impossible to show up for daily responsibilities, there is a good chance this is more than a stress response to this uncertain time, and it is time to get help.
Whether you seek professional help or not, to see your unsettledness, anxiousness, depression or grief as a normal response allows you to be with yourself. This is the art of saying hello to your anxiousness – or whatever state of mind you are experiencing – rather than falling into it. Or as Pema Chodron so beautifully invites us to do – befriend ourselves.
The more you are there for yourself, it becomes clear that you are not alone. Your depression is not just yours. There are millions of people feeling the same way. The same is true for your fear, frustration, anger, doubt, shame, etc. We are all going through this together – not just you, your family, your city, your country, but the whole world.
The more you can be present for what you are experiencing, touching it with a healing balm of your own heart, the more you become a part of the healing that is coming out of this challenging time. I know it can seem like there is nothing good about Covid-19, but it is my experience that the greatest challenges always come with the greatest gifts embedded in them.
Maybe, just maybe, the wild and crazy year of 2020 (and now 2021) showed up in order to help us open our hearts more to ourselves, to our fellow human beings and to the earth as a whole. Maybe, just maybe, all the challenges of 2020/2021 are just birth contractions, opening us into a time where we finally realize the preciousness of every moment, every being, every thing and every experience.
Thank you Mary ! Your newsletters never fail to bring me back to the truth of myself. And even if I am not feeling my best at the time of reading it, I am reminded of those passing clouds and the sunshine just behind them !
That’s a lovely way to look at it. Be light!
Such a good and thoughtful article, Mary. Thank you.
I know that Covid-19 and its repercussions is causing huge difficulties for many people in so many ways but I feel personally that the virus is a gift to humankind.
It has shown us in a way nothing else could have done that we are a global people and that we, as a species, have to change our ways dramatically to have a chance of slowing the course of climate change.
So many people seem to think that not only are they separate from nature but superior to it and have an undisputed right to do what they want to the planet with impunity. This tiny, clever organism has shown us so clearly that there are deadly repercussions for our wrongful attitude and to the cruel and inhumane treatment of non-human animals, which has not only persisted for years but increased in recent times with the advent of intensive farming and other abominations.
Lockdown demonstrated graphically to people across the globe that the virtual removal of polluting human activity resulted in changes that were impossible to ignore. The sky was clearer with a blessed absence of vapour trails; birdsong and the hum of insects was louder; blue sky appeared over cities in China for the first time for decades; dolphins were seen swimming in the river in Venice; The Himalayas were visible for the first time for years from many countries; roads were virtually clear of polluting traffic; there was a marked absence of the usual noise of human activity and the peace was almost tangible. As a result of lockdown, people were forced to appreciate the benefits of nature, many for the first time; to walk and cycle where they would once have taken the car; to live locally and, in many cases to reevaluate their lifestyles and the consumerist and capitalist divided society we have created and operate under. What else could have delivered these lessons so effectively?
My biggest hope is that the human species sees this virus for the gift is is; that we learn the lesson that we are being taught so forcibly and begin to treat non-human animals and the planet we all share with the respect and care that has been missing for far, far too long. That we learn that we do not own this planet to do what we want with but that it our home and the home of every other being that lives alongside us.
I fear that if we don’t take the opportunity we’ve been offered to continue to pursue some of the restrictions that have been placed on us; restrictions that may be uncomfortable for us but are vital for the survival of the planet, such as a reduction in the amount of air travel; preservation of rainforests, ancient woodlands, peat bogs, mangrove forests and other vital carbon sinks, alongside the creation of new wild habitats to encourage healthy biodiversity and eco-systems again, we will be in for something far worse than Covid-19…
I believe wholeheartedly that we must respect and thank this virus, not try to ‘beat’ it (language that typifies the arrogant attitude to nature that has prevailed for so long). If we don’t work with it rather than see it as the enemy, we will be hit by something far more devastating and we will have brought it upon ourselves. We have been warned.
We have had fires, drought, floods and now new zoonotic diseases. The planet has had enough of our greedy, selfish, shortsighted and destructive ways. We must appreciate this beautiful world and everything in it and work together, as the global people we are, with and not against it.
Yes, yes, yes!! I have the same hopes and appreciation for the virus. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts.
Wendy
Thank you for your post and all the wisdom you shared with us. I join you in action and prayer for a world wide wake up. ❤
Thank you Mary and much love to you…
You are so welcome! Love to you too!
I see the pandemic as the earth calling/shocking us into
awakening to our wasteful behaviors and taking for granted all our abundance/blessings.
Change is in order on all levels for the better responses by humans.
It is long overdue to get our priorities straight vs. going on with the status quo.
Yes! I totally agree with you. Thanks for commenting.
From Gratefulness.org “Word for the Day”
Whatever is within the flowers is within us. We are a part of this universe! Whether I’m looking at a human hand or looking at the galaxies of shooting stars or the flight of a bird…something marvelous is going on and I’m part of it. We’re all part of it! ~Harold Feinstein
And we are all in this together!
Blessings to you Mary, Sky Ann
Beautiful. Thanks for sharing it.
My prayer is that we can stop learning life lessons through just pain💜🙏 Peace to you and to our world Mary.
I’m with you Linda. Thank you for commenting. Be light!
Great reminder, Mary Thank you.
You are welcome!