We are truly social beings. There is a want to engage, to observe, to
feel, to share. The lockdown has significantly shifted our social
emotional normal to physically be without our social halves.
We
are now faced to engage with ourselves more than usual, way more than
usual. How are we to navigate this time during lockdown, emotionally and
spiritually?
So where do we then navigating towards to feed that social emotional void? Who are we really during this time where we are literally confined to swallow and ingest a multitude of emotional bombarding media outlets? You could inadvertently be sprinkled or layered with filters, boomerangs, hashtags, consumed by and with media. Who are you becoming under all the media masking or layering? Who do you really want to be during this time?
IF YOU DARE.....
EXPOSE THE LIES AND RE-IGNITE THE TRUTH WITHIN
1. BE THOUGHT AWARE
We are not robots, we are human beings and we have a very active
thought life. At times that thought life can be an active highway of
headlights zooming past (and this can feel exhausting); sometimes there
are just a few headlights which have their brights on (which can be
debilitating).
Your thought life is a definite
part of You and yes you can be your very own traffic officer that calls
the shots; pull over, left, right or right-out of here. The question to
ask yourself is, how aware are you of what you think about?
2. BE EMOTIONALLY AWARE
Leading on from point one, what are you feeling when those thoughts enter your mind. Thoughts that fly into your life have passengers and one of them can evoke emotions in various ways.
The question to ask yourself is, are you aware which thought caused that smile, or frown, or irritation, or outburst? Was that emotional reaction even who know yourself to be?
3. BE TIME AWARE
With lockdown having been instituted, time has taken on a whole new
concept. There is so much of it, so much you can do, so much you don't
want to do, so much to be distracted by, or numbed by.
The
question to ask yourself is, are you aware of how you are using this
time during lockdown and how this could be evoking your emotional state?
Do you blink and wonder where 5 hours went?
4. BE YOU AWARE
To be honest, we can be our worst enemies. As we have been "gifted"
or "forced" with more time on our hands, the temptation of sitting on
social media is very real. There is nothing wrong with social media at
all; other than the residual effects it has on us during and after using
it. Using social media to perhaps visit news sites to see if there are
any updates or changes; reading comments filled with anger, sadness,
hate, and conspiracy.
Unbeknown to us or actually known to us but ignored or compartmentalised - what you view, watch, and read actually influences you.
The question to ask is, can you determine what it is on social media that influences you in less than a positive way? Secondly, is it worth the emotional rollercoaster to consume your time and energy to shift your thought and emotions?
5. BE IN CONTROL
During lockdown, we have definitely seen that there are things within our control and things outside of our control.
Awareness
of time, emotions and thought are not new concepts but can easily be
overlooked during a time where panic, fear and the unknown are the
headlines on every page you may have access to. The challenge is that
when extreme situations arise, we are hard wired to think negatively.
So it is here at this point where I would like to point out four steps that you could use to re-ignite a way to reign in and control your life; and to sidestep the way the world wants to control your thought patterns which is through fear, and panic. It is time to choose to live your best life.
6. KNOW, OWN AND PROCLAIMING THE TRUTH
Firstly: We have been given rules, guidance,
instructions and commands to live our lives by. We have been fearfully
and wonderfully made. God knows every hair on our head and he creates
the parameters of our life. In Jeremiah 29:11, God states with
conviction that He has amazing plans for your life, "plans to prosper
you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future".
Secondly:
Reign in your thought life by following God's instruction in 2
Corinthians 10:5 to "demolish arguments and every pretension that sets
itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ". Take your thoughts captive, and
know for certain that you DO NOT have to think every
thought that comes into your mind. The thoughts you do not want, let
them fly by and do not allow them to land and offload.
Thirdly:
The world will feed your emotions for its benefit, and have you for
breakfast. The tempting fear sandwich is one of them. God never created
us with the emotion of fear because he knew its detriment. God commands
us and confirms this in 2 Timothy 1:7, that "God has not given us a
spirit of fear, but of power, love and of a sound mind." "Fear not", has been stated in the bible 365 times, reinforcement for everyday of our lives.
Finally: God has got your back, He is at both your sides, and He walks in front of you; in brief He surrounds you. The current situation can leave us confused and overwhelmed. We can be at a point where we feel we cannot figure things out; we ask questions such as why, how long or what now. Proverbs 3: 5-6, provides us with comfort and reassurance, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths".
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