I asked a friend, a well-known spiritual guru, what are the best ways we can help right now?
Well, first of all he said, “Accept the limits of what you can be doing.”
You’re restricted to your home, and are unlikely helpful to the medical community he went on to point out.
“So be your most helpful taking care of those who are closest, and not just your loved ones,” cryptically he said.
“Meaning, taking care of yourself?”
“Kindof,” he said. (as I’ll come back to)
Now is a time of great stress for many of us.
“Even if you’re healthy and secure it’s a time when great stress is most contagious,” he said.
“Mentally, economically, and even just being locked in the same home with those you love stress can build up too.”
“So, first and foremost take care of yourself and those that are closest to you,” he said.
And then he said something that sparked an idea in me…
Give the world something only you can
“Give money,” he said, “Give others your time, your care, your love but give them something far more precious too…”
“Give the world your mind.”
“You can’t do much outside, so you must do it inside,” he said.
And here he wasn’t talking physically, but mentally.
That right here right now you can give your mind to helping the world.
“We Are The World”
We are the children
We are the ones who make a brighter day, so let’s start giving
There’s a choice we’re making
We’re saving our own lives
It’s true we’ll make a better day, just you and me
Do you remember when this group of artists got together to sing this song back in 1985?
Do you remember why they were singing?
It was for the dying kids in Africa.
And this group of artists came together to bring us all together.
Here it wasn’t just that they were giving their time and creativity.
Nor even that singing this together they might have inspired others to give more to the world.
But as my friend said—
“Putting our minds together creates magic”
You might know of the spiritual teaching that we are all one.
And this is what he ultimately meant when he said, “Take care of those who are closest.”
He wasn’t just talking about you and others around you, but the oneness of The All inside you.
Now I’m not going to try to convince you of the woo-woo—as a spiritual teacher that’s his job!
Yet you might know that meditators have conducted “experiments” where bringing their minds together in mass meditation has impacts far beyond themselves.
The same is “known” of prayer, the perception being that doing things in our minds can change things “out there.”
I’m not going to push that woo-woo cart up the hill, but I will say with certainty this guided visualization will be helpful to you and others around you.
This guided visualization is good for you
At the very least this guided visualization will put you into a deeply relaxed way of being.
And who doesn’t need this now?
At a higher level it might help you get beyond these stressful times, and move your mind from “less resourceful” ways of thinking to more hope-filled ways.
This will help you feel better now, and also help you help others around you feel better.
Next level up you might find this inspires in you new actions.
Maybe just a small spark of things that you might do to help the world and others around you.
And then, at the capstone, the top of the pyramid, well, just maybe my guru friend is right.
The woo-woo sh*t has something to it 🙂
And bringing our minds together in this way we are actually doing our small part in healing the world!!