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SPENCER: What are you going to do with 84,600 moments?

I feel like I have said the phrase, “it’s been a wild ride” about the pandemic on a loop for two years.

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Variants, restrictions, regulations, opinions, information and misinformation are in a constant pivotal cyclic, state in our world.

Distroscale

As a business owner with both a restaurant and a studio for classes, as well as a shop and services, the recommended public health and government regulations have kept me spinning on my toes, like an imbalanced, intoxicated ballerina.

I am not looking for pity but if I am to be honest, the various parts of my business with often different restrictions for each area, has been a whole whack of work for us.

Personally, we have had family with COVID-19, testing positive just before the holiday season. Thankfully, they were not hospitalized and we did get to see them for the holidays. But it was scary. The virus is unpredictable, non-discriminatory and affects each and every one differently, with many people left with the aftermath of the disease.  One family member transmitted it to a few others, and the guilt was heavy. It was a very vulnerable feeling.

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Mindfulness teaches us present moment awareness. What is going on in this moment? How do you feel in this moment? How do you want to show up in the world, in this moment?

There are 84,600 seconds in each day. Each of those seconds an opportunity for us to understand ourselves more, and to be the people we want to be. Obviously, we aren’t really controlling the seconds while we are sleeping but how we are spending our waking time, lingers beyond the moment.

When we are stressed or blaming or angry at the world for the condition it is in, then the energy of that stays within us in cellular memory. This can affect our physical health, emotional health, mental health and spiritual health. It has a huge impact on how we treat and connect with other people.

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Research has proven that stress, blame and anger can create unhealthy physical vessels for us; increasing our risk of cardiovascular events, headaches, affecting our immune system, nervous system and so on.  Mentally, it can increase anxiety, worry, sleeplessness and more.  Spiritually, it can be a devastating disconnection from each other and the bigger picture of life. The spiritual root of anger can sometimes be found in frustration, pain and accumulated problems. All of these spring from the depths of the heart. Unhealed wounds, disconnection from higher consciousness can create a need to place the blame and anger out into the world.

People are angry that the world is changing. They want to blame someone. It can be far more difficult to just be with the unknown.  There is a need to direct it at something, like a sacrificial lamb of blame. The root cause of a spirit of anger is tension from past hurts and guilt. This mixture of pain and guilt is cumulative and it erupts in anger when new offenses remind us of past experiences. Authority, leadership, and being controlled can be triggering for many. This pandemic has brought forth all of these energies.

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But what if the only way through this is collectively, since this is a global collective problem?

What if we understood that what might not affect one, could possibly affect others in detrimental ways? That it is not each man to themselves consumed with how it is affecting each of us individually (personally or professionally) but what if we looked at the collective of our world, and responded from there? What if we took care of the most physically vulnerable with protecting them against the pandemic but also offered compassion to the vulnerable emotionally, mentally and spiritually hurting?

“The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members” – Mahatma Gandhi.

What if we just started being kinder to each other? What if we considered that everyone is perhaps feeling vulnerable?

I invite you to imagine that every morning you wake up with $84,600 in your bank account and then every night, the money is gone, whether you wasted it or not. And then the next morning you woke up and again had $84,600. You would do everything in your power to spend each dollar each day, knowing you would lose the money if you didn’t spend it.

You have 84,600 seconds in each day – 84,600 moments to mindfully use. You don’t get to carry any over to the next day. Don’t waste time.

So, reflect… how are you going to use your time to ‘show up’ in this world?

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