We are all going through an abnormal life experience at the moment. I’d like to share some different perspectives and maybe start to question some of things that we can learn from this.
We can not do so much about life, we only can take as it comes. Now, this COVID-19 crisis is to at least some degree affecting almost everyone in the world. New things always scare us because there are so many unknowns. Of course we all want to know what’s going on and get it over as quick as possible before too many people get hurt, both physically and mentally. I believe we all can learn something from this situation. Maybe this will help people to become more personally connected than before, at least this is my hope.
The first lesson — maybe we can learn and identify why we are really afraid of ourselves, our family, or others the most? Of course we want to answer for all the above, but actually the real answer is that we all think first of ourselves, which is actually a good thing because only that way can we be able to help others. So maybe we should start to get serious about taking care of our health and try to change our lifestyle. Most disease is self-created by our lifestyle choices.
The second lesson — we can be grateful for each moment, we really have no idea what life has in store for us but whatever happens we can always find something to be grateful for. Such as you being able to read this, you are SO lucky that you can see, read and understand. We can say thank you before we get what you want.
The third lesson — were you wishing for more time for yourself? Now you have lots of time for yourself and with your family. It’s a perfect time to create new connections, listen to each other, make a plan, cook together, play together and hopefully after this situation has passed you can keep spending quality time with your family.
And the fourth lesson — we can spend money so easily, but if you are earning a normal income then it can be a very challenging time right now for most of us. Maybe we should start to think a little more of saving money so that we’re able o handle difficult times with a little less stress.
I always try to think positive, which I believe we all need to do. Stress, anxiety, and depression are all natural reactions and emotions but we need to notice them and just watch and allow them to pass through us. If we give so much attention to one of them then we may get stuck with it.
Try to exchange your fear, anxiety and the unknown with LOVE. All positive emotions come from love, all negative emotions from fear. They are the two opposite feelings and we can not feel both the same time. When we feel love we have hope and we trust our life, feel healthy and happy. This positivity will eventually become contagious so we can send it out into the world.
I’d like to finish with a few quotes from Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross:
“There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.”
“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose, there are no mistakes, no coincidences, all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen.”
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Ayda Ersoy, nutritionist (Dip.C.N., Dip.S.N.), master trainer (CPT ACE, NCSF, CanfitPro), registered yoga teacher, founder, Health Angel Nutrition, Fitness and Wellness, founder, SMS (Stability, Mobility Strength) Intuitive Training System.
you were doing really great untkjil you glot to the p;art about “your lifestyle choices are the reason you are sick.” Granted, “poor lifestyle choices” are a factor in some diseases. But I think you have an “elitest” problem, my dear. You see, many people do not have a choice as to the kinds of foods that they can afford to eat. A lot of people have to survive on canned meats, vegetables, and fruits. A lot of people eat white rice and white bread and sugary things because they are cheap and that’s what they can afford. Portuguese sausage, spam, white rice, these are staples of the local diet because they are cheap; and that’s what people can afford. We can’t all eat those quinoa stiff with fancy kale. Seriously. You completely disregard sociology-economics in your lovely little “feel good” assessment.
Further, let me elaborate on your lovely “now that we are all at home, lets reflect”., I got news for you, sister. A lot of people here work minimum wage jobs and or are “essential” workers. They do not get to stay home with their families and “reflect”. They get to go to their jobs and work overtime to make sure someone like you has their “hot lattes and quinoa” waiting for them when they want it.
A lot of people are putting their livers on the line to save people. Yet, you blame people for their own illnesses. Another news flash, for your cutesy little tone deafness. A lot of healthy yoga practicing people have died from this virus. There is no cure for it and no vaccine. To blame people for their underlying health conditions is more than tone deaf. it is unprofessional to say the least. If someone has a per-disposition towards a certain diseased, it is hereditary. It can be exasperated by unhealthy eating and exercise factors, but this can be because of socio economic factors, and lack of access to a proper healthy balanced diet and actual time to “exercise” due to working the two to three jobs it takes to keep your head above water here.
I understand, that “hot yoga” classes at 180 bucks a session, or fancy meals made with exotic ingredients, for the people that can afford your services may be able to “relax and do with less”, but the people here, who are just regular people cannot. The workers here need their employers and the general public to keep them safe so that they can return to their jobs. The people here need to feel safe so that they can go back to those businesses. Until then, people are going to be made homeless by this situation.
I am sure you will be offering all of your services free, to those people with “unhealthy lifestyle changes”, so that they can change, because of your angelic services, aren’t you?
By the way, people in India are dying like flies right now because of this virus. Because even though some may practice yoga, they aren’t practicing social distancing. And it is the poor in that country living on white rice and veggies, whatever they can glean that will die first. Many in India have underlying health conditions brought on by severe socio economic situations. Is the practice that you do, taken form another culture, better than them?
I suggest you go back to India on a fact finding mission and clear your own soul before advising others.
Uh, fact check for “thefacts hurt”. India, a country with over 1.3 billion people, has had only 1,075 deaths to date. Please don’t make up stuff to support your argument. Mahalo!
India has admitted to serious under-reporting … if you are poor, you die at home in India, and nobody has been testing to see if it is COVID, pneumonia or “flu” until recently.
hey semi, whatever your name is. India just started its curve upwards. They only started testing a month ago. They have 40 thousand confirmed cases, with only nine thousand recovered, and almost two thousand deaths as of today. if you will use your brain to comprehend, this is how all countries start out with this virus. India lacks testing, and that is an understatement.
India 2020 population is estimated at 1,380,004,385 people at mid year according to UN data. India population is equivalent to 17.7% of the total world population. India ranks number 2 in the list of countries (and dependencies) by population.
So don’t even think of trying to convince anyone that with an upswing and India just beginning to see Coronavirus that the death toll over there will not be astronomical. They have almost 4 times the population of the USA.
We have over 1,111,000 cases of Coronavirus in this country. 63 thousand deaths. At one point we were where India is right now.
Now, top the point that the commentator was making, the writer of the article is obviously an elitest who caters to rich people in hot yogas and fancy kale lunches. The point was she is far removed from the realities of the “commoners”, and she should go back to India for a little humility since she is using the culture to make her moola.
I mean I got it. Don’t know why you didn’t. Maybe you think Corona Virus is a hoax I guess. Good luck. Go do some yoga. That will save you. And oh yeah. “reflect’.
@ Ayda: That is a very ivory tower assessment , from what seems to be a perspective rooted in 1st World privilege. It also conveys – perhaps unintended – an uncompassionate, large amount of what amounts to victim blaming. If *everyone* had adjusted their lifestyle, thinking and world view to fit what you outline as the ‘right’ way to exist – they wouldn’t be ill? Really?
In reality, what you recommend is completely beyond the reach of the majority of the 8 billion of us on the planet today. They do not have enough of any of the resources needed to live as you are advocating. They have to focus on basic survival. That means food, water, shelter, safety and health care of some sort, FIRST. They can not live as you suggest, and they can not even practice the strategies that are allowing countries like the USA to start to get COVID-19 “under control”. And they’re not all off in the distance in countries the State Department doesn’t want us to visit: they’re here, too, invisible until something like a pandemic forces us to notice them.
New Age precepts such as those you present have -0- effect on COVID-19 or any of the last dozen or so almost-pandemics that have bloomed in the last 100 years, either as prevention or cures. The same goes for idealism. The time for ‘reflection’ is AFTER an emergency or disaster is over. Until then, practicalities take absolute precedence. That means actions like working 12 hour shifts to manufacture medical supplies, practicing biosecurity , giving up favorite activities that put others at risk, helping to get food to those who can’t get it themselves … not sermons & pep talks.