When the Fear Comes
Yesterday I watched a man have a mini panic attack in the grocery store. He wandered into this aisle and stopped dead before the lone super pack of toilet paper. Judging by the look on his face he’d just vomited in his mouth a little. He returned a minute later with an empty shopping cart and proceeded to mad grab as many rolls of toilet paper and paper towels his cart would hold.
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Nothing drags us under the surface faster than the riptide of fear. For that man, in that moment, there was no other consciousness. He rounded the corner and stepped into the panic spread by people he never even saw. Like sea birds floating on the ocean’s surface, we are all subject to the energetic tide of our collective consciousness.
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So what to do?
1. Be present. When you find yourself facing an empty shelf of Lysol products, notice what is happening in your mind and body right that instant.
2. Breathe. Take 3 deep breaths, feel them filling your lungs and release the tension you notice you’ve just taken on (shoulders, eyebrows, jaw, etc.).
3. Feel the bottoms of your feet. This puts you into your physical body pulling you out of the spin of your mind. Keep breathing. Release the spin (tension, anxiety, fear) out the soles of your feet and into the ground.
4. Once you have pulled yourself back to a grounded state, then proceed with your choices. Do you need three cases of Lysol wipes? Will your world meltdown if you have to use a rag to wipe up a spill because paper towels have vanished from the planet?
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We are all beings of energy. But unlike currents subject to weather and tides, we have the ability to chose our energetic flow state, which directly influences those around us — positively or negatively. Be present. Choose to feel. Breathe. Ground and shine.
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