Life is a journey and sometimes obstacles may come our way on this journey. It can prevent us from moving on. The Covid-19 epidemic is one of the obstacles we face in our life journey. While we all had a normal life and continued our life journey in a routine, we are now out of the routine of our lives. We like routine because routine means trust, routine means certainty. However, Covid-19 dragged our routine life journey onto an uncertain, non-routine path, and naturally, our anxieties and fears began to arise on this unfamiliar path. How long the virus will last, the fact that a cure has not yet been found, and the risk of infecting ourselves or our loved ones with the virus evoke feelings of fear, anxiety and worry in us. At the same time, during the uncertainty process, emotions such as unhappiness, pessimism, hopelessness and helplessness emerge, and this affects our mood.
When we lose our way in this journey of life, the first thing I can do is find the way again. But without rushing, without getting caught up in feelings of anxiety and panic and going down the wrong path... We should not forget that sometimes we have to get lost in order to find the right path. Sometimes you have to stop to continue your journey. Sometimes it is necessary to disperse in order to gather. Sometimes you have to fall to stand up.
When we feel anxious or despairing, take a deep breath and exhale slowly to get back on track. Our path may be dark. To find the way, if we cannot see in the dark, we can hear, if we cannot hear, we can smell, if we cannot smell, we can continue by touching.
Sit in a comfortable position, leaving your hands and feet free.
• Start breathing slowly and deeply.
• Look around and see if you notice anything. Repeat in your mind the names of five objects that do not cause discomfort or stress.
• Continue breathing slowly and deeply.
• Now listen to the sounds you hear around you and see if you feel any discomfort or stress. Run five sounds through your mind that do not evoke any emotion.
• Continue breathing slowly and deeply.
• And now try to pay attention to your physical sensations and how you feel, and notice any discomfort or discomfort. Think about the five feelings that do not cause stress.
• Breathe slowly and deeply.
While doing these, your emotions and thoughts may encourage you to break away from the moment every second. If so, please notice their efforts and expand your attention to what is happening outside your body as above. Repeat this several times.
In our daily lives, we all strive to control our emotions and thoughts. However, just as we cannot control the Covid-19 obstacle that comes our way in this life journey, we cannot voluntarily control our emotions and thoughts. In fact, when we try to control it, we are thrown into paths that we do not know at all and that cause us more anxiety and fear. There are other things we can do to cope with emotions. Just as we can continue our lives without losing our way, we can also allow our emotions to exist, make room for them within us, and return to our lives.
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Breathe in and out again
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Describe the emotion you are feeling right now. Give it a name (anxiety, fear, anxiety, pessimism, unhappiness, etc.).
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Notice in which part of your body you feel this feeling most intensely and gently touch that area.
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Compare the feeling you touch and feel to an object. (stone, book, rock, table, etc.) If it had a color, what color would it be? What would its surface be like? hard or soft? What would the temperature be like? hot-cold?
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While doing these, be aware of your urge to get rid of these feelings and thoughts.
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Let these feelings remain there as a part of your body. let me
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Breathe into it and make room for it there.
Just let it be there. give. Realize that your body is bigger than him. In a theater or opera stage, sometimes the spotlight shines on a single person and all the attention of the audience is desired to be on him/her. Sometimes we shine a single spotlight on our thoughts and our attention and focus is on this light. In this light, there may be these thoughts:
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No Things will never be the same!
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Things are going to get worse, I have to stock up!
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I have to check social media, I wonder what's going on now?
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We will catch the virus too!
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I will get sick and die!
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Nothing will happen to me!
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I will infect my relatives
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........................ Thoughts like .............
If you look carefully, you can see that none of these thoughts are completely wrong or right. You will see that it is not. Therefore, it is to be expected that from time to time we see these thoughts as absolute truths and give control to them. However, such situations indicate moments when the possibility of deviating from our path in life increases. So let's shine a spotlight on all our thoughts, not just these thoughts. Let's let the thoughts that disturb us come and go as they are, like cars passing on the street, or let them play like the sound of a radio playing in the background. If these thoughts start to bother you, you can tell yourself that you are playing "Covid-19 radio".
The most important thing we need when we lose our path of life and get back on our path is to realize our values in walking the path of life. What is meant here is; Beyond our daily goals, they are the principles we hold deep in our hearts that will make our lives meaningful or enrich them. We can call the paths we walk from the beginning to the end of our lives values. For example; Getting married is a goal, being happy is a value.
Focus on these values again and find the answer to the question of what you did for these values when this epidemic is over.
Take action. In this journey of life where we lose our way, the only thing we can control is our behavior. What matters is in which direction we walk. And it's how far we've come. You can also plan what you did at the end of the day or what you will do today during this journey. For example; Personal care, what you can do for your profession, your future plans, taking care of your hobbies, what you can do to improve yourself, sleeping, reading, eating. food etc.
We do not know how long this Covid-19 obstacle will last in our long journey of life and what else we will encounter in this journey of life. There will be many things that will lead us astray, but what is important is how far we have come, despite these obstacles, without moving away from our goals and values. We should not forget that a virus comes and teaches us many things. It teaches us that we need to slow down in our busy and crowded lives where we squeeze our lives between shopping malls and plazas, where we are worried about keeping up with our plans and plans. Stop time by teaching that it is pointless to race against time. In a world where bonding is done through digital devices, it makes us feel the lack of hugging the people we love. The Covid-19 virus gave us uncertainty and teaches us to live with uncertainty.
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