This is an OPPORTUNITY, not a PUNISHMENT

“When will life go back to normal?” I keep hearing people ask.

"Normal?" I query. "What normal do you want?"

If you mean drugged, brainwashed, zombiefied, stretched and stressed then you go right ahead - or could this be the perfect opportunity to shift your perspective and see this as the biggest opportunity you've ever been gifted in your life?

Think about it for a minute. When you think of the term "gap year" what comes to mind?

Slow travel, beach days, chilling out, no schedule, no pressure, just being?

How interesting. Isn't this potentially in part, what you are being afforded right now?

I'm not diminishing the impact that this has had on the millions of people who have been directly impacted by COVID-19 but I am suggesting the fact is we will not return to normal. We simply cannot. It's time to shift our perspective and to head somewhere else.

COVID-19 has been a huge shock to our collective system and it's hard not to underestimate or even ignore the degree to which our systems, structures and institutions have and will be impacted by this.

KPMG recently issued an Economic Impact Report that said, “We anticipate unprecedented U.S. job losses of nearly 20 million in Q2,” going on to compare this figure to 8.6 million jobs lost over 23 months during the
financial crisis.

So if we shouldn’t focus on our dream of a return to normal, what can we focus on?

We can focus on the fact that this is essentially our gap year.

It’s a window of opportunity for us to go within, to be more, to set our intentions, to build daily practices and take actions that are profoundly good for ourselves, our families, our teams and humanity as a whole.
The absolute beauty of this situation is that this would have been unthinkable and untenable in a pre-COVID-19 world.

In order to wake up as a society and as individuals, we needed a wake up call. We needed this pause to give space for all of us around the world to pause reflect and reframe our lives. This situation has removed a
lot of the external stimulation in the external environment (apart from Tik Tok) from our lives and we now have an opportunity to go within and decide who and how we want to be, not what the rest of the world tells us we should be.

This is like a personalised Vipassana retreat (One of India's most ancient techniques of meditation, Vipassana promises personal transformation, happiness, and relief from negativity. ‘Vipassana’ means to see things as they really are, and the practice is based around deep self-observation. On a Vipassana retreat, you’ll spend the whole time in silence) only your cave has all the creature comforts and safety of your home.

What you do at this time will predict how you emerge from this experience. The challenge therefore is to see this as an opportunity not a threat or a punishment.

Our autonomic nervous system reacts to whatever we think and feel so if we feel afraid, lonely or hopeless we are going to trigger that response in the body. When we are in this state or frequency as research undertaken by Joe Dispenza and David Hawkins shows, we become weak and that weakness translates into lower immunity, more mental health issues, weight gain, less patience, digestive issues, nervous tension, more reactivity, more inflammation, poorer quality sleep, lethargy and less ability to control cravings and emotions.

What this shows is that if your thoughts are focusing on blaming the outer world or COVID-19 for this situation then you are allowing the environment to dictate your experience of life and your own wellbeing.

Many of my clients, friends and others have actually been preparing for something like this for a long time. Anyone who has established routines and daily practices of meditating, journaling, yoga and breathwork,
exercising, prayer, communing with nature, contemplation and exploring their inner world will find their daily practice will become their bedrock, their anchor and will support them to emerge as the butterfly.

This is a time to get out of a natural stress and fear response and shift into a focus on gratitude, love and joy. It's a time to focus on what you can control. Like your own body environment - I don’t believe in life work balance however I believe in body mind spirit balance on a personal, familial and community level. My 10 degree shift model shows the connectivity and alignment of this process - starting on the personal, then the team or family level and finally the company or community level.

Charity, as they say begins at home so this is a foundational time for us all to get our personal wellbeing and energy sorted. Not sleeping or medications could be making you out of balance chemically and hormonally. Losing your regular routine, morning commute and coffee and seeing your friends could have you out of whack socially. Not going to church, the gym, the beach or visiting family regularly could have you spiritually out of kilter.

Losing your job or your business and work drying up will all create stress state in the body. With consciousness and awareness we can begin to course correct. Personally I do quick spit and wee test each day to check my inner physical environment, I wear a muse headset to monitor my meditations and brain frequency to check in on my sense of calm and mental wellbeing. I call my parents or visit them everyday to check on my tribes wellbeing.

What can you track yourself and what matters to you so you can continue to course correct and make small, sustainable 10 degree shifts?

A leader can do a check-in with staff each morning to check the team environment. World leaders can check the air quality, water quality and happiness of their people each day to monitor the global environment. Simple daily feedback mechanisms can really support awareness and raising consciousness in our human world. If you just spent the first half of the lock down understanding where you are at and then making tiny improvements to get yourself in balance then that’s 50 per cent of the work done and the most
leveraged and most challenging part.

I’m not suggesting you be pollyanna or put on rose coloured glasses nor feel your emotions during this time. Not at all. It’s not about whether you react or not to the situation you are in, it’s how long you stay in that state - your recovery and recomposure from it is what counts.

 You can change your body balance and your gene expression by cleaning up your inner environment in
just four days. Applying the first three elements of the 10 Degree Shift Model during lockdown you could apply these simple ways to bring yourself back into more balance:

1 - Move more - Day 1-4. Incorporate more incidental movement. Walk around the block after each zoom call or do 5 wall pushups and 5 squats every time you go to the bathroom. Find ways to increase your incidental
movement.

2 - Stress less - Day 5-8. Spend 4 days meditating for 5-10 minutes each morning and afternoon and then observing at how you speak, act and feel, Track your mood and notice what things throw you out of balance - are they inner or outer things? Use an app like ReWi to track and monitor your stress levels.

3 - Plant powered Day 9-12. Try a water and vegetable fast for four days - try it and see how you amazing you feel at the end of it. Notice any inflammation going away, clarity of thinking, improved sleep and clearer skin. Notice your thoughts around restriction and hunger, are you really hungry or just thirsty? Notice if any television or social media commercials of food trigger your cravings and desires. Do you feel deprived or energised?

After that you can begin to focus on a balanced environment in your home or work family. This may mean imagining new ways of working with less commuting, new structures that embeds these lessons, that help us adapt and learn from this crisis and turn it into a healthier, stronger, more collaborative workplace and family ecosystems.
Then you can begin to turn outward to look at how you can be of service and contribute to the wider world around you. What can we do now to provide for everyone’s basic needs? If governments can create access to
trillions of dollars for stimulus packages and corporate bailouts, there how can we not say that every person on the planet should have access to food, water, shelter and sanitation. Isn't that fundamental human right? We've all been complying with lockdown in order to support our global family, now what can we do to lobby governments to level the playing field of universal basic access to essentials including healthcare.

What can we do now to raise awareness and action about the structural and systemic inequities in our countries and across the globe. The elderly, the disadvantaged, indigenous people, have all been seen to be more vulnerable during COVID-19.

We can we do to create new economies and ways to trade? As a result of many governments stimulus packages during COVID-19 we've essentially seen a trial of what it would be like to live with a minimum basic income. Let's study how this has impacted people, companies, spending, accessing of healthcare and the sense of security people have felt.

What we've witnessed in the most densely populated and polluted cities in the world is that it is possible to rapidly and dramatically reduce our emissions and clear our air and waterways. How can we ensure that
when lockdown is lifted that we don't simply revert to our polluting habits? I know I have seen families out walking together and riding bicycles more than ever, with less time spent commuting in cars and the opportunity to work from home, how can we ensure the new normal isn't one of simply increased activity
and emissions?
The challenge for us all is that we can't create the new normal using the systems, habits and beliefs we had before. We must shift our perspective, we must reinvent our practices, we must down tools and pick up new
ones that recognise we are all a part of a large biological, economic, social and spiritual collective.

We must focus on new ways of living and being. We must reach out, embrace and engage our collective imagination to create focus and flow. To question what's possible, what's beneficial for all, what's coming from love, peace and higher states of consciousness. Don't allow the death of millions of people through COVID-19 crisis to be in vain. Allow it to be fuel for the new.

This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to imagine and create a world that we would want to live in and our children's children to inherit.Let's do this! Are you in?