The DAILY SPARK Blog

YOU CAN DO IT!

“You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.  You are able to say to yourself, ‘I lived through this horror.  I can take the next thing that comes along.’  You must do the thing you think you cannot do.”

Quote from Eleanor Roosevelt,

REFLECTION:

The coronavirus is making life challenging for everyone.  I’m hearing stories of a sense of hopelessness, anxiety, depression and downright fear of what awaits us.  While we are in very unprecedented times, times like most of the world has seen or lived through, many of us have had some horror/deep challenge we lived through.  You made it through it! Drawing on that experience, what did you do to make it through (breathe, take a shower, pray, just be present for that moment – without letting the mind drift to the what ifs, the future) 

  • Think about a very difficult time you faced.  How did you get through it?  What did you do?  Make a list.
  • Can any of those actions be applied to this time of uncertainty?
  • Do any of the actions you previously applied to your challenging time apply here?  Create a list for reference.  Add to it any you can/are willing to do to not only survive but thrive in this changing time.  

TRUE LISTENING

I have this radical idea that I’m not really listening unless I’m willing to be changed by you.”

Quote by Alan Alda

REFLECTION:

  • Assess you listening skills.  When in conversation with someone are you willing to be changed?
  • Today, try “really listening” to someone.  Write about the experience.  Was there some kind of shift/change?

INTERCONNECTEDNESS

We humans are all intimately interconnected.  How we treat each other matters to the health and well-being, perhaps even the survival, of us all as a species, not in some vague future, but in this very moment.  Kindness is the natural response to recognizing interconnectedness.  And in that kindness is true wisdom.

From: Arriving at your own Door  108 Lessons in Mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn

REFLECTION:

Coronavirus has shown us in a significant way, we are truly intimately interconnected.  Kindness matters. 

  • How can you show a kindness to someone else today?  
  • Do one kind thing for someone else today!