Quarantine: An Opportunity for Spiritual Renewal
I’ve noticed this time of self-isolation has many parallels to the experience of a dark night of the soul, which comes before spiritual renewal. A time where there are no distractions from yourself or your thoughts and that space gives you the freedom to explore what is and isn’t working for you.
It’s a time of profound healing, that we got but didn’t ask for, and perhaps it’s even more intense than a typical dark night of the soul because we really don’t have anywhere to go to distract ourselves. No doubt, this is a fast track to our empowerment if we choose it.
The medicine in a time like this is to be fully present with ourselves and allow all emotions (our own and the collectives’) to move through us and fully express themselves. If that means releasing pent up anger and frustration by kicking and screaming into a pillow, then so be it. Even better.
Daily journaling, as much as I resist it, is incredibly helpful to process emotions. Creativity is an equally important form of self-expression, whether that’s by baking, cooking, sewing, crafting you name it. There are so many opportunities. As a writer, I find I instantly feel better when expressing my thoughts in a format like this.
This is truly an opportunity to become closer to ourselves than ever before. With all of ourselves, even the parts we deem as unworthy or negative. We are seeing this on a societal level too. A society is made up of individuals, and the more we heal on that level the more we heal our society. Everything that wasn’t working, but was ignored, is now impossible to turn away from. That is the ultimate freedom, however.
It is an intensive time, though, on all of us and some more than others, so here are ways to ground and find renewal during this. Nature has always been the ultimate healer, since that’s where we come from, and now it’s more true than ever. If you’re not able to get to a park or forest each day, watching it on TV is almost as calming too.
I actually feel incredibly moved by watching documentaries like Moving Art by Louie Schwartzberg, which captures jaw-dropping time-lapse scenes of our environment, and One Planet with David Attenborough, which showcases our natural wonders and wildlife and their evolution. It seems the effects can be felt on the digital level too.
The continuous movement of body and energy is another support for us during this. It would be quite easy to become stagnant being indoors, and in this time I’ve truly realized how sitting is one of our greatest health issues. Research has linked sitting for long periods of time with a number of health concerns, so getting up every hour and even a leisurely walk each day would be beneficial.
Energy movement, such as breathwork and Kundalini yoga, is equally important as it helps us circulate stagnant energies and integrate the new energies we’re experiencing. Tapping, also known as EFT, is another way to release harmful emotions by tapping on meridian points. There is an abundance of videos on Youtube by Brad Yates that show you how to do this.
Being sound in the body translates to being sound in the mind, so turning to a whole-foods plant-forward lifestyle at this time would be valuable on all levels. I recommend whole-food plant-based supplements as well, which our body actually recognizes as nutrients.
Plants are here to help us as proactive medicine and have done so since ancient times. One way I feel capable of meeting each day is by using medical grade essential oils to target physical or emotional imbalances. It puts me in control of self-healing with customized tools.
While it’s not the time we asked for, we can choose to reap the benefits of quarantine that we may not ever receive again in this lifetime: a period of true rest and reflection. No distractions, a time of going within. It could very well be a resting period before what’s to come, so let’s heal ourselves for each other.
