Is this the beginning of the beginning? Tips for your health and happiness during the corona virus pandemic

The Great Turning is what buddhist activist scholar Joanna Macy calls a massive wake up call heard around the world. It is a time when we reconnect to each other, to Mother Earth, to life, and begin of a new way of living, a new way of structuring societies. Along those lines, an email I just received from her organization has personal tips for your health and happiness during the corona virus pandemic.

• Remember gratitude for this moment, for the earth, the air, the water, the sun, our friends and family, the plants and animals with whom we share this gorgeous planet.


• Stay informed but check only trustworthy sources and limit it to once or twice a day. 


• Practice self-care; nature connection, movement, spiritual practices, journalling, meditation, art-making. Reach out to give and receive community support. 


• Avoid putting yourself or others in situations where you can spread the infection. Cancel or postpone in-person events. Self-isolate. There is still no known prevention other than avoiding contact with those who may be infectious. There is no cure, other than what a healthy and strong immune system could provide. 


• Shift to online tools for communication 

I especially love the "Remember gratitude" part. How about you?


Here is Joanna Macy's longer description of the importance of gratitude in what she calls "the Spiral of the Work that Reconnects," which helps us usher in the Great Turning:

The Spiral of the Work That Reconnects

The truth of our inter-existence, made real to us by our pain for the world, helps us see with new eyes. It brings fresh understandings of who we are and how we are related to each other and the universe. We begin to comprehend our own power to change

By Dori Midnight

and heal. We strengthen by growing living connections with past and future generations, and our brother and sister species.

Then, ever again, we go forth into the action that calls us. With others whenever and wherever possible, we set a target, lay a plan, step out. We don’t wait for a blueprint or fail-proof scheme; for each step will be our teacher, bringing new perspectives and opportunities. Even when we don’t succeed in a given venture, we can be grateful for the chance we took and the lessons we learned. And the spiral begins again.

There are hard things to face in our world today, if we want to be of use. Gratitude, when it’s real, offers no blinders. On the contrary, in the face of devastation and tragedy it can ground us, especially when we’re scared. It can hold us steady for the work to be done.

The activist’s inner journey appears to me like a spiral, interconnecting four successive stages or movements that feed into each other. These four are:

1. opening to gratitude,
2. owning our pain for the world,
3. seeing with new eyes,
4. going forth.

The sequence repeats itself, as the spiral circles round, but ever in new ways. The spiral is fractal in nature: it can characterize a lifetime or a project, and it can also happen in a day or several times a day. The spiral begins with gratitude, because that quiets the frantic mind and brings us back to source. It reconnects us with our empathy and personal power. It helps us to be more fully present to our world. Grounded presence provides the psychic space for acknowledging the pain we carry for our world.

By Angella Gibbons

In owning this pain, and daring to experience it, we learn that our capacity to “suffer with” is the true meaning of compassion. We begin to know the immensity of our heart-mind, and how it helps us to move beyond fear. What had isolated us in private anguish now opens outward and delivers us into wider reaches of our world as lover, world as self.

The Spiral of the Work That Reconnects