How to manage your fear during these trying times and boost your immune system

In these trying times of the Covid-19 pandemic, it is easy to become fearful about our health, our financial situation, or what the future will bring. While there is legitimate cause to be cautious, down spiraling of fear is not very useful and can compromise your immune system and mental and emotional well-being. Here’s a simple, practical, and effective antidote you can use whenever you find yourself thinking fearful thoughts.

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Hello. Wherever you’re watching this, this is coming to you from the Expansive with Anna Gatmon YouTube channel. Thank you for watching this.

I want to talk today about why it’s important to practice love instead of fear of the Coronavirus. We are experiencing such tremendous stress. People at different degrees, different life situations are experiencing stress to different degrees. But we’re all affected by this situation.

Now, spiritual practices are not just for when everything is going well, and you may be going retreat and you feel a bit better by the end of it, it’s for dealing with life situations. So now more than ever, when you’re in this pressure cooker where you are forced, like a meditation retreat for three months, you are forced to face your demons, to face your blocks, to face your challenges, or your opportunities.

This is the time to go inwards. There’s nowhere else to go except for inwards. Go inwards and practice spiritual teachings, spiritual practices. This is the time for it. More than ever, your strength will show up as a result of you practicing at this time more than ever.

And so, this is what happened to me today: I was exchanging email with a friend and her life partner was rushed to the emergency room a few days ago with a problem that’s not related to the Coronavirus. But and her partner was rushed to the hospital. They’re okay. They’re coming home today. But she was asking me, should we keep distance now? I’m not sure if we should quarantine or be together, and suddenly I just had this idea that came to me.

It’s like you have each other. It’s up to you to decide. But I think that the hospital, in a sense, where we live, at least, is a safe place they’ve had very few, like less than 10 cases. So you’re pretty safe.

And I told her, You know, you have each other, practice love at this time, instead of fearing the virus practice love and that’s my message to you today. This is not some just some random woo woo spiritually at teaching or practice.

This is how you practice spiritual teachings. You just do what the teaching says, and you practice it daily, a few times a day, weekly, you just do the practice, and by doing it, your life improves. Your attitude improves, your view of your life situation, your relationships. Everything becomes better because you are practicing small, tiny baby steps. But every day you’re practicing a spiritual teaching.

So specifically, practicing love instead of fear.

It is so easy to tap into the fear of becoming sick. and there’s an element of, it’s real. If you have the disease, if you have tested positive, it’s not a pleasant disease. It’s a horrible experience. If you have severe symptoms. It really is, from the reports that we hear on the news. It is a horrendous experience, if you have severe symptoms. I know that many people barely have the flu or notice it. But those who have symptoms, it is not a good experience. It is a really harsh experience.

And so there’s cause to be worried. There’s cause to have fear. But if you don’t have it, then spending time, fearing it is not going to do you any good.

Likewise financially, today if you’re safe, if you have a meal if you have shelter, if you have friends, if you can sleep, if you’re healthy, you have running water, you have food on your table. Don’t worry about what’s going to be in two months.

You might want to activate yourself in order to focus and decide what to do in order to prepare. But sitting and fearing for something that hasn’t occurred yet is just feeding fear. It’s just feeding fear. It’s not the fear about the Corona or finances or whatever it is. It’s fear about fear. And that is the the worst thing. It’s the antidote to love. Just like love is the antidote to fear.

And so just fearing that something that hasn’t occurred that might occur. I understand the tendency to go there. I have a too, but it’s a very strong magnetic force that pulls you in and then just it’s endless.

Now there’s one more reason that this is so important. When you practice love, you are expanding your consciousness.

When you are in fear, you are contracting your consciousness.

Now when you have an expanded consciousness, when you are feeling love, you’re opening yourself up to greater range of possibilities, greater range of solutions to any problem that you have so that if you are experiencing fear for financial reasons the more you’re fearful, the more of a tunnel vision you have and the less creative you can become.

So the more you open yourself up, the more you practice love, which expands your heart, expands your body, expands your soul, your spirit. The more you can tap into a larger range of creative solutions for your problem.

So that’s a really important reason why it’s important to practice love as well. And so let’s take baby steps. It’s not a big word. Just love everybody. Don’t do that.

Find things to love about your life. You’re home, you have shelter. Make a list of five things that you love about your home. You’re at home all day. Make a list of 10 things you love about being at home or 10 things you love about your house and the environment and how you’ve made the decoration or different objects or things that you love in your home.