'“Mummy I can’t sleep”, says my youngest daughter. As I lie cuddling her in her little bed, she tells me she is scared. Someone told her there are giants behind Mount Everest. One of her biggest dreams is to be the first kiwi kid to climb Mount Everest and be on the New Zealand 5 dollar note with Sir Edmund Hillary. She tells me graphic detail, what she imagines the giant may look like - with it’s big pointy fingers and big ears, how it may suddenly shout “Boo” from behind the mountain, and how terrified she feels.
The giant is the perfect metaphor for COVID-19. An uncertain entity hiding in the ether. We have no idea how big it is, when or if it will pop it’s head out at us, how it will affect us, how it will change our lives. We are strongly influenced by what others say, their fears and our own fantasy.
Amidst the chaos and our heightened survival instincts, the evolutionary primitive parts of our brain focus on the threat, we are hyper-vigilant and it is natural to loose sight of the bigger picture.
I gently remind my daughter that her words have the power to guide her thoughts. Although she is young, she already knows on some level, that her thoughts can become her beliefs, and that her beliefs form her habits, which in turn may become her reality. We change the words to “I am falling asleep easily” and she finds reassurance in repeating them after me. “I am safe in my little bed”, “Mummy and Papi love me”, “I am warm in our cosy house”, “We have enough food”, “I can run and play on the beach”…. and within minutes she tells me she is feeling better and sleepy and drifts off into a happy sleep.
We all have the power of choice. We choose how we view the situation we find ourselves in. When we focus on what we have to be grateful for, are mindful of the thoughts we think, the words we say and how we act, we instantly change our internal state - calming down our nervous systems, reducing stress hormones, improving immunity and resilience, start to see the bigger picture and can even feel joy and bliss amongst chaos.
