“It feels as though time is evaporating …” and ”I hope we are learning and will be different on the other side of this pandemic …” Many and varied expressions of these sentiments echo our collective experience of “pandemic fatigue.” The way we live our lives each day affects how we perceive the passage of time and how we open to the potential of transformation.
Recently, I was listening to a guided meditation aimed to shift our relationship with anxiety. This mantra captivated my attention.
“May I meet this distress with presence.
May it awaken wisdom and compassion.
May it give rise to love in action.
May it serve awakening of heart and mind.”
This intention invites us to transform our worry, anxiety, concern, fatigue … to be of service in the world.
Research shows it! Neuroscientist David Eagleman, Stanford University adjunct professor and TV host of PBS’s The Brain, affirms this through his research:
“Every moment of your life, your brain is rewiring. You’ve got 86 billion neurons and a fraction of a quadrillion connections between them. These vast seas of connections are constantly changing their strength, and they’re unconnecting and reconnecting elsewhere. It’s why you are a slightly different person than you were a week ago or a year ago.”
There’s hope. Our hearts are drawn to it! Each moment of the day, we, by our cellular and spiritual nature, ARE transforming. Maybe the question is: Are we aware of and grateful for it?
In what ways are we inviting our attention to be enticed by the simple pleasures possible in living in the moment, attuning to and engaging fully the transformation that is possible in each moment?
(See http://nautil.us/issue/91/the-amazing-brain/your-brain-makes-you-a-different-person-every-day?mc_cid=1166f86b40&mc_eid=d4cd1e38be for the full piece with David Eagleman.)
—Ann Jackson, PBVM, Prairiewoods spiritual services coordinator