Orienting In Space

We’ve all been in quarantine for weeks now. While some days I feel grateful to be safe and warm in my home, other days I notice a suppression of fear, where anxiety creeps up from behind. Shortness of breath, worry about the invisible virus in my own home, worry for my parents, my best friends in NYC city…how long this whole thing will last. No matter how we process it, this time we are living in is unprecedented, it’s unnatural. We are social creatures, we are meant to be together in groups living our dynamic lives. It’s deeply, truly okay that we feel not ourselves.

Earlier this year, even before isolation days, I started introducing a phrase to my clients that really resonated with me: “orienting in space.” Often in our day-to-day lives we can feel dis-oriented, sometimes without even realizing it. We feel ungrounded and unclear. Sometimes we simply become one with the water we swim in, not a bad thing, but a disorienting feeling all the same. Life feels nebulous like an open ocean where our footing feels hard to find. Sometimes we know the earth is beneath us, but we feel lost or scared even on the ground.

Orienting in space for me is about calming the nervous system and re-grounding into our body and connecting to the earth. A gentle hand on the heart will do it some days. Other days what works is bringing a smile to mind (as Tara Brach shares) - reminding us we no longer need to be in fight or flight. Sometimes orienting is about checking all four walls of the room you’re in, about noticing which way north is, how many other people are in their homes at the same time as you, or gratefully acknowledging the essentials in your home and the journeys each of those things took to get to you.

I’ve noticed a huge increase in panic attacks through increased anxiety every week in my practice and referred people to therapy at an unprecedented rate. Never has there been a more important time to practice mindfulness work like this. There is no wrong way to do it, and the simpler the effort is the better. Start small. The smaller the better.

Give it a try! Where are you sitting? What sounds do you hear? Which way are you facing? What comforting essentials are around you? What is one next choice you can make right now?

One day at a time my fellow humans. Sending all the love in my heart. We are on this planet together, and I love you! We got this.

P.S. Here are some Heart Filled Yoga Playlists that may be comforting. Also this incredibly powerful Virtual Breathwork Class by the lovely Josephine Edmondson every Saturday instantly heals me, would love for you to join.