How To Navigate Feeling Overwhelmed - In the Face of Uncertainty from Coronavirus

The USA is one month into coronavirus - and it's been destabilizing to say the least.

One of the many reactions I've seen that I'd like to offer support around is feeling overwhelmed, especially around what to do to help.

We are facing such a high level of uncertainty with such deeply concrete impacts on our economic and emotional well-being.

At the same time, there is such incredible mutual aid work and organizing to support marginalized communities right now.

Things that many of us have dreamt of making happen - but needed a gigantic impetus to get so many more people to realize was important too and to take collective action now.

So how can we lean into this overwhelming moment to give rise to a different world - a more liberating, loving, and just world?

Let's Stop Believing In the Myth of Certainty

I believe it's going to take letting go of our attachment to needing to feel certain in order to take action. (There are, of course, many other conditions needed to make a new world possible! This is just focusing on this particular dynamic)

Our society likes to (often incorrectly) believe that we can be certain about things. That we can be certain about what the 'right' thing to do is or about what will happen next.

But our refusal to accept the degree of uncertainty in this coronavirus pandemic will not help this situation become more predictable and controllable.

In fact, our need for certainty only makes us want to turn away from what's happening. So we project what must be happening because that's what we believe "should" be happening - in order for us to feel safe, even if it's delusional.

Not good. Not useful. And now dangerous for us all.

And yet, our desire to be certain and our struggle to be with uncertainty is both real and understandable.

In our oppressive and exploitative society, we've been unconsciously conditioned to believe that if we make a mistake, we are a mistake.

So we strive to be certain, to have things figured out, to have a plan before we take action.

Not really possible during this time of coronavirus.

What If There Was a Different Way To Be With Uncertainty?

What if you could lean into the present moment and listen for the action that is being called for - from you and for your community?

Our society hasn't taught us how to do that very well. Some of us may not even know what I'm talking about.

But that's why, in Tea Time with Sandra, I guide you through some practices to help you ground yourself in the face of uncertainty and choose how you want to show up in this moment of need.

If you want to stop reading about you can do - and just start doing it, with my support, Tea Time with Sandra is here for you.

Participants from the March 24th session on "How To Get Grounded In the Face of Uncertainty - Even If It's Overwhelming" shared that

• "This was very helpful. I feel excited to bring these ideas to others. The biggest takeaway was for me how much I have wanted to hold onto certainty and that is impossible, which is somewhat liberating."
• "Both feelings of calm and anxious co-exist, and that anxiousness doesn't negate calm feelings. So there's that, and I can hold both with perhaps calm a bit closer."
• "I can choose that I want to be a calm presence with my connections and be generous in actions that I can do."
• "This whole thing helped me see that I want to be open and flexible and unattached to the outcome of what this means for me, so that I can help others do the same"

If you would like to get these concrete practices to help you navigate feeling overwhelmed in these uncertain times, join us at Tea Time with Sandra.