©Leonard Carr 16^th April 2020

Adjusting to Change

1. Let go of the idea that things need to stay the way they have always been. Give up the impulse to try and deny the current reality and resist change.  Nobody likes to change especially when it is sudden and forced on them.
2. Discipline yourself to not live in nostalgia for what was, in other words to not dwell in the past.
3. The current reality provokes us to draw deeply on inner resources and develop new ways of coping and hopefully even thriving.

Celebrate Life

1. This pandemic presents us with an invitation to live more fully, thoughtfully and deeply; to become more deeply engaged with what it means to be alive and to be human living in these times.
2. Deepen your appreciation of the gifts of life and the privilege of the life you have; be grateful for every new day; for health and for the people around you.
3. This is an opportunity to up your game, on a physical, emotional and spiritual level. This could be a time to discover your own unique strengths and potential for greatness.

The Freedom to Feel Secure

1. The key to feeling secure is to maintain a sense of mastery and control over your life. Maintain of your normal pattern’s habits and rules, do so to keep a sense of stability and to feel anchored in some familiar reality.
2. Keep up your interests and hobbies. Put more effort into your physical health like giving up any addictions especially smoking.
3. Learning about healthy diet and practicing good eating and sleeping habits also help you to feel more in control and more protected.
4. Keep as much of your normal routines as possible and do not allow yourself to drift into free fall.

Building Resilience

1. To build resilience, rehearse possible challenging scenarios in your mind as well as visualize the precautions necessary to prevent them or the strategies available to you for dealing with them.
2. To inoculate yourself and children build faith and perspective and rehearsing how you will cope emotionally through a healthy attitude and approach.
3. Set goals about who you would like to become through this process. Consider what skills and character traits you would like to develop or improve upon?  Decide then how you will work on becoming that person. Learn what steps you need to take and what you would need to know to become that person.
4. Make an inventory of your morals, values and ideals. When you are clear about what is really important to you, decide how you will keep that knowledge close so that you can draw guidance, security and strength from keeping faithful to what truly counts in your life.

Learn from Your Own Past

1. Think about all the ways that you have dealt with challenges in the past and discuss strategies that you have used to overcome adversity.
2. Get in touch with what you have discovered about yourself: your strength, courage, resilience, resourcefulness, wisdom and skill in those times.
3. Then work out how you can apply that knowledge and experience in dealing with your current challenges.

New Opportunities

1. Considering new opportunities to redefine work. What can be done remotely or at home?  If you must be quarantined and cannot work, think about what interest or projects you can pursue that you had no time for in the past.
2. It may be a good time to, for example, get more interested in gardening, cooking or things to do around the home.
3. Visualize good possibilities for the future: this might be an opportunity to make a drastic change that you have been putting off.

Be Curious

1. Develop an approach of curiosity about the way things are changing. Become interested rather than fearful.
2. Observe and think try to deeply understand your own reactions and the developments and challenges that each new day brings. This time is presenting an opportunity for great self-discovery. Through self-discovery and awareness, you can gain mastery over your emotions.

Cultivate Self-Awareness

1. Learn to identify and pay attention to your emotions, being compassionate to yourself and holding space for others to share feelings with you.
2. Make time to reflect on your experience and to record your insights and impressions in a journal.
3. It is very useful to get in touch with and express your emotions, especially your sense of powerlessness (at times), fears and sense of actual or anticipated loss.

Express Your Emotions

1. Release feelings through crying when you need to.
2. Process your own feelings and confide them in someone who can hold the space for you, you will avoid spilling them out in ways that upset others, particularly children. Carefully consider what you tell yourself and express in front of others
3. Accept your humanity.
4. Practice being more patient and forgiving of the humanity, and at times frailty, of others.

The Voice that Others Need

1. Be a voice of encouragement and support to those around you.
2. If you feel panicked or even doubtful do not spread that, it is very contagious and makes life harder for those around you.
3. Keep abreast of facts and developments from reliable sources helps you to maintain a sense of control.

Keep Connected

1. Find creative ways to stay connected and deepen connection.
2. Tighten your social and relationship bonds, support others and learn to seek and appreciate support from others. Work on your close relationships or marriage.
3. Work as families, colleagues and communities to strategize of ways to stay safe and mitigate not only health but also social and economic effects.

You Choose

1. You can choose how to respond to the situation.  You can choose how you wish to be there for others.  Whether to grow from this experience and become a deeper, stronger, wiser and more courageous person or to be defeated by fear. Optimism is also a choice.