“Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next.”
~Arundhati Roy: The Pandemic is a Portal
It has been a year since the US was turned upside down by Coronavirus. It has been a year of unprecedented upheaval. It has been a year of heartbreaking loss, fear, anxiety, and fatigue. It has been a year of masks, social distancing, lockdown, quarantine, sanitizing, and analyzing for risk over and over again. Nothing has come easy or been simple. We have made hard choices. We have isolated. We have restricted our movement, watching our world get smaller and smaller. We have longed for normalcy, remembering all we took for granted... shaking hands, riding public transportation, sharing a bite, hugging, talking to a stranger, smiling at each other... all the gestures that are so deeply human.
And yet, here we are.
We have adapted to what was once impossible to imagine. Perhaps the pandemic is indeed a portal, an opportunity to break old habits and welcome a new perspective, a new world.
How might this pandemic be a gateway for you into a new way of being?
The world we left behind was not ideal. On a global scale we faced massive inequities and injustice. On a personal scale we may have noticed habits or behaviors that were depleting or damaging. If we consider the pandemic a portal, what would you like to move towards and what are you ready to leave behind? The following reflection will guide you through appreciating all you have been through and imagining what could be.
Pandemic Reflection
I invite you to find a quiet space to pause.
I invite you to notice where you are in space using all of the senses available to you: what can you see, hear, smell, taste, feel?
I invite you to notice where you feel your breath move in your body.
If it feels comfortable, I invite you to close your eyes or soften your gaze so that you can turn your attention inward.
I invite you to consider this past year.
I invite you to notice the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise and allow them to be present.
I invite you to consider how you have adapted this year.
I invite you to find compassion in your heart for all you have endured.
I invite you to begin to imagine your world anew.
I invite you to notice what you would like to welcome into your world.
I invite you to notice the thoughts, emotions, and sensations that arise as you consider breaking with the past and moving towards a new future.
I invite you to play the movie of this new healthy future in your mind, noticing what it feels like as you allow yourself to imagine what could be.
I hope this reflection gives you a glimpse into what might be possible as we move into this new world.
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