On NPR, a specialist spoke about the way the brain handles trauma. Six months after a cataclysmic event is the crescendo. The mind is then sorting everything through the emotional centers, which really shifts behavior and reactions. Rational mind has a hard time getting a grip, because it is secondary instead of primary.
We are six months into the pandemic, and stuff JUST got real! The interview pointed out that millions of additional people are being treated for depression, and Nyasha said that there is a boom in the need for counselors and therapists.
When I look into my world, it is not only six months after the onset of the pandemic, but also six months after my terminal cancer diagnosis (of dooooom). For so many people, the pandemic is the cake, and there is a lot of icing: monetary challenges, Black Lives Matter, isolation, political unrest…
Processing with the emotional mind can be an enormous space for growth, but also turbulence. Lots of the icing is being whipped up with the ingredients of this emotional reaction. The inner child needs to be held and comforted.
I put some focus on the situation of the United States, and then noticed that my skin was literally bubbling with tension. My body reacted to a level of pre panic attack. There is so much anger, and it is fueled by the battle created by the upcoming election.
The craft materials came out. I started stitching and beading a sacred gift.
Later, Kwami and I walked in the forest. We laughed as he shot photos and took films of the forest rabbits (squirrels) and the creek that has returned after the dry beds of summer. We drove in the fall sunshine, and ate a picnic lunch from a favorite restaurant. And later, more stitching, more beading.
The remedy to a crisis is to readjust the focus. Denial will not work. But, balancing the focus appeases the emotional mind, hugs the inner child. You deserve a world filled with love! Create it, be it.
micheleplumbstowell.org 