Weathering the Storm of Uncertainty

Weathering the Storm of Uncertainty

https://www.restoredminds.com/5-Rules-For-Recovery

In this episode, I discuss anxiety, uncertainty and weathering the storm of the CoronaVirus. As we face this unfolding global pandemic day by day, we must do our best to navigate the storm both as a society and as individuals. From an individual level we all have a very important role to play, and if we all do our part as individuals we will prevail as a society. In this episode,  I want to share some key ideas to help you personally weather this storm. We, as individuals, can use this crisis as an opportunity to strengthen ourselves and as a result our families, communities and society can emerge stronger as well.

TRANSCRIPT

(00:11):

All right. Hello and welcome to this episode where we're going to talk about anxiety, uncertainty, and weathering the storm. So my name's Matt Codde. For those of you that don't know, and, uh, welcome to the restored mind show. And on today's episode, again, I want to talk about just this idea of weathering the storm that we're all currently in as, as humanity. Right? You know, um, it is a global pandemic that we're facing and it's unlike anything most of us have ever seen, right. Um, so I wanted to talk about some just key key points that we can use to weather this storm that we're in. And I, and I wanted to share this quote, I came across it and, um, it was just something I thought was applicable and it's by Leonardo da Vinci and it says, fix your course on a star and you'll navigate any storm.

(01:01):

And you know that, that's kind of the first point that I really want to remind everyone here. If there's, if you're washing this, is that, look, there are calm seas ahead, you know, metaphorical. Of course there are calm times. Ed, there's, there's, you know, this, this isn't going to be forever. Now, that doesn't mean that it's going to end tomorrow. We don't know. Right. But it's not going to come. It's not going to stay forever. Right. It will come to pass and remembering that in the back of your head to say, Hey, look, no matter how chaotic right now feels there, there's good ahead. Right. You know, there's a, there's good ahead of us. There's a stillness, a calmness ahead of us and our job is just to ride out the storm until we reached, reached that point right now. Because, you know, one of the problems is when you're in a storm, one of the worst things you can do is focus on each wave that hits.

(01:55):

Right? Because it just seems that much more chaotic. Right. And it's, you know, trusting and knowing like, look, we're going to hit waves. This is going to be a tough time and doing our best to navigate it as individuals and then as families and then as you know, communities and cities and counties and so on, States and finally countries, right? And doing our best to navigate it on each level is so important as an individuals, we have roles to play, right? And, and, and take those roles seriously. You know, um, like th there's, there's so many little things we can do, not only for ourselves and keeping us safe, but keeping our family safe. And then more importantly, like, you know, helping others that are, that may not be able to do things that you can do, you know. So I mean, and, and I can play so many ways out, you know, for, for, for so many different people.

(02:42):

So I don't want to go into specifics, but the idea is, is on individuals, we have rules that we need to play and we need to step up to the plate and, uh, and make sure we're, we're doing that. Um, so, so the first thing is just realizing that there are calm seas ahead. Secondly, the best way to navigate any kind of longterm or undetermined amount of stress is to focus on just this little section of time, right? So even just getting through today, right? It's like, yes, you want to keep in mind that they're calm seas ahead, but all you need to make it through is today or even now, or this hour or this minute, whatever it is, right? The only thing you have to handle is right now, okay. And the problem with anxiety is anxiety will try to make us handle five minutes from now or five hours from now, five days from now.

(03:34):

How am I going to do this then? And it's really easy to get overwhelmed by trying to solve problems that don't yet exist, right? And that's one thing anxiety loves to do is the loves to come up with problems that you don't have an answer for and then try to solve it, right? And then we spend right now trying to solve five minutes from now and then we just kind of continue on that loop mindlessly in a, in many ways. So if you can focus on today and just [inaudible] or whatever, even now, but especially just like on a day by day thing max, right? And that's as far as you're looking out, you'll be able to weather this storm, you know, whatever comes up. Okay. It could be as you can always usually handle. Right now. It's when you start trying to handle tomorrow and the next day that things get overwhelming really quickly.

(04:23):

And so if you're out there and you know, whatever, whatever is, because, because again, a lot of us are having a lot of conflict and problems, you know, into our life, right? You know, people are losing jobs. Um, you know, financially there's a lot of uncertainty, you know, uh, with schools, you know, parents, you know, I mean for, for many parents out there that are now homeschooling their children or trying to figure out childcare, I mean, like there's so many challenges that so many of us are facing that, you know, I can't even begin to comprehend it. All right? I mean, cause you know, again, I'm usually so internally focused if I'm totally transparent, um, during this time. And so, you know, the best thing we can do is just try to make it through today and worry about tomorrow when tomorrow comes. Um, and the, the third thing I want to talk about is you need to be aware of people that are looking to gain from this time.

(05:20):

Fear and uncertainty are great motivating factors for, for people that want to use them in, in bad ways. Right? And we need to understand that because we are in a global pandemic and all the fear and uncertainty that there's, there's a chance that that can make you vulnerable to falling prey to people that want to use this for, for some kind of gain, be it financially, politically, um, you know, whatever it is. And being aware enough of yourself and your own internal drives. Because again, if there's someone out there that's selling this, you know, total, you know, total immunity, like, you know, or like all these, you know, products that people will come up with to say, Oh, this will guarantee that you can't do X, Y, Z. Right? Or that you won't get this or all that. You know, look when, when it comes to doctors and things recommending certain things.

(06:15):

Absolutely. You know, but, but we need to realize there's going to be a lot of people that try to use this time for their own personal or organizational gain, um, for and for good and bad. And we need to just be aware of it. Right. Um, and especially politically, I mean, you know, in the States we're watching both sides just try to rip each other apart and for what, you know what I mean? Like people are trying to make this about getting votes and likability and all that. And it's like, look, we, we need to see the real issue here and it, and again, it's about keeping people safe, keeping people healthy, getting people that are sick help and, and really focusing on the right stuff, you know? And, and just realizing that there's going to be people that do that and just not getting, not getting consumed by it, not getting involved with it and realize that there are people out there trying to do that.

(07:03):

Right. And just being aware of that I think is a, is a big thing. Um, especially like this this last week, you know, that's just one thing. My big takeaway was just like, we just need to be aware of the stuff that's going on out there. Right? And then finally, the last thing that I want to offer is just you, you as an individual can decide to use this time to better yourself. What that means is going to be so individual and so personal that that I don't even want to offer, you know, a whole bunch of suggestions. But I mean there's, there's so many ways that instead of sitting there and watching the news all day, and instead of browsing social media for hours and hours and hours, you can use this time for your own personal development. Now, if you have a lot of time off, because maybe you're not working and you can learn new skills, skills that when this, this storm ends, that might be applicable for, you know, companies that you, you know, we'll give you more access to different jobs.

(08:05):

Right? And you know, for those of you that may have lost jobs, it's like, okay, what, what an opportunity to ask yourself. Like, what kind of place do you really want to work at? Right? Um, you know, and then in developing skillsets, you know, with free courses, I mean there's, there's so many ways to develop skills, right? And to really build your skill set to make yourself that much more valuable to other companies. Um, you know, if that's something that you know, you look to do, you can learn languages, you can learn to cook. I mean, you know, this, this downtime, this forced break that we're being, you know, cause I'm being kind of imposed on us, right? For, for many of us anyway, this forced quarantine. It's like, man, you can ask yourself like, what, what it, what it gives you, the opportunity is to say, Hey, look, how was I living my life and do I want to continue living it that way?

(08:58):

Right? So for those of you that may not have gotten a lot of chance to spend time with your kids, just enjoy this time with your children. To the best of your ability, right? I mean, I know that's what I'm doing. You know, it's like, you know, I, I'm, I'm very guilty of just getting lost in work sometimes and you know, the point where I'm not fully present for my daughter, right? And it's like, okay, well here's, here's an opportunity where I get more time that I can spend with her. Um, and in learning to see this time, not as this big inconvenience, but as like, Hey, you know, like kind of almost a wake up call in many ways of, Hey, how are you living your life and what can you, how can you use this time for the better? Whether it's learning to serve others during this time, however you want to do that, right?

(09:46):

And however you can do that, right? Or, or even, um, you know, again, bettering yourself, whether it's working out more, eating better, um, you know, learning new skill sets. I mean, I dunno, is this, there's so many ways you can use this for good, even though it's being forced upon you. You can take this and, and use it for good somehow. And that's your job to figure out how to do that for you as an individual. So, you know, to recap, you know, I just want to just kind of go over this like look, there's calm seas ahead. I don't know when, and you know, we're, we're just, you have to trust that that's coming, but as individuals we just need to focus on making it through today. We don't need to worry about getting through all the other days that are ahead of us. It just today, right?

(10:30):

And again, we have to be aware of people that are looking to profit and gain from this time and that will manipulate this situation for their own personal gain. And you just have to be aware of that and, and not fall victim to that. And then finally, you know, deciding to use this time to better yourself and improve yourself, whatever that means to you. All right. And so, um, you know, restored minds, we are doing, um, weekly coaching calls with our, with our community members. So if you're not a community member, I highly encourage you to check that out as a support resource. You also will get full access to our masterclass in our, in our community as well. Um, you know, for overcoming anxiety and we also have free resources available on our site and all you need to do is just go over to restored minds.com or you can, uh, click the link down below in the notes.

(11:17):

Um, and again, you know, if you are finding our channel, um, um, helpful. We really appreciate, appreciate your support. So giving us a like and a and subscribe and share would always be helpful cause we want to get this stuff, uh, to help as many people as possible. So thank you so much for tuning in this week. Um, and we will continue as we go through this to, uh, to, you know, release a new videos and, uh, yeah, to just to get through this together, um, so that we emerged stronger and better at the end of it. So thank you guys and I'll see you guys next week. Take care.