Live Discussion: Overcoming Coronavirus Anxiety | Ashok Gupta | Gupta Program |

Hello, and a warm welcome to our session today on how we can overcome anxiety about the coronavirus pandemic. And I know that a lot of you have written into our clinic and to various other organisations to try and get help and support with what is a very challenging time that we're all experiencing right now. And we want you to know that everyone here at the Gupta program working tirelessly to provide you with support, with resources, and of course, the Coronavirus Challenge in order to help you through this difficult time. Now, many of you have asked me, what is the Coronavirus Challenge? Essentially, the Coronavirus Challenge is a 10 day program of advice, information, exercises, meditations to help you boost your immune system, to give you the maximum chance of avoiding getting an infection from the virus and then also making sure that you have it for fewer days and you're less likely to pass it on to family and friends. So we're working tirelessly to provide that information for you. And each day you'll find out information about your diet and how you can use your gut biome to boost your immune system. What are the best levels of activity and exercise that boost your immune system against viruses? Or all based on our last 20 years of research and all the latest science, sleep, many of us don't realize, but our sleep, not just the length of our sleep, but the depth of our sleep, determines how strong our immune system is. So all of those secrets are there within the Coronavirus Challenge. And then finally, of course, our minds. How do we calm our minds? How do we get our minds in the best frame so that we, we empower our immune system, supercharge our immune system through various different exercises. And that's all there in the Coronavirus Challenge too. And you can find out, join for free, it's completely free at www.thecornaviruschallenge.com and please tell everybody, share it across the Internet, your family, your friends, groups, that you're members of, your colleagues. Because we have to get this word out, we have to get this out there that there is a way that we can actually support healthcare services. There is a way that we can boost our own immune systems. And the traditional medical profession, it's not something that they would necessarily emphasize because it's often based on you get sick, you come to us, we give you treatment or a pill and then you go away. Whereas actually, preventative health care is often put to the back burner. We could take charge. Rather than waiting around for a solution, we can take charge of our own immune systems. Good. So in terms of how we can overcome anxiety about the coronavirus and all the various things that obviously go with that. And I just want to briefly mention some things. And in the Coronavirus Challenge online, there are plenty of videos and explanations and things that you can do to reduce your anxiety. So the full videos are there. So rather than me repeat myself, I'd love for you to actually watch those videos as part of the Coronavirus challenge. But I'll just cover a few things that can help us understand what we can do. I think the first thing to realize is that it's perfectly normal to have anxiety right now. Many people do. And sometimes when we get certain emotions, we feel like there's something wrong with us or we feel that we're weak in some way, which is really not true. It's perfectly normal and natural to have these types of emotions whilst we go through this period of time. And it may be anxiety that you're experiencing. That anxiety might be about your own health or the health of people you love, your family or friends. It could be some anxiety around your financial well being or anxiety about your livelihood moving forward or your business. And please know that we're all in this together. Many people like you are feeling like this, perfectly normal and natural. And sometimes when we have emotions, we either indulge them, so we think, oh my God, this really is terrible, and we make that emotion worse, or we push the emotion away, say, I don't want to feel that. And we push it down deep somewhere and pretend, I'm fine, I'm fine. When someone asks us, we say, no, I'm fine, I'm fine, don't worry about me. But the compassionate thing to do is to become aware of these emotions, of our worries and thoughts, and not hide from them, but face them and see them and observe them and validate them. It's okay for me to feel like this. There's nothing wrong with me. It's okay to have this anxiety. And just to make it easier for us to kind of imagine what this is like, I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine. He's also appearing in the Coronavirus Challenge, by the way. Mike the monkey, right? We often talk about a monkey mind, and Mike the monkey represents that unconscious part of us, that almost childlike part that is worried and fearful and afraid and is overwhelmed by it and can't see the wood for the trees. So this monkey mind keeps running around, looking at the situation and getting very anxious and very worried. And sometimes we're not able to maintain our vibrations and our Awareness. And we get carried away with these worries for our dear beloved minds. We get overwhelmed with them, and then the anxiety starts building, what we call the fight or flight response, where our heartbeat rises, we get more anxious thoughts in the minds. This is all part of the anxiety cycle. And then we feel anxious about feeling anxious, and we think, oh, God, I feel really awful. What am I going to do about this? And so when we're aware of those thoughts, we take a step back. So normally we're carried away with this part of our minds, but instead we take a step back and we observe it for the moment. And that is the process of meditation or mindfulness to observe our emotions and thoughts without judgment. Because the more we judge this part of us, the more we get carried away. We build up a cycle of thoughts, emotions, thoughts, emotions, thoughts, emotions. Instead, we take that step back and say, it's okay. And then what do we do with our own child or niece or nephew? If they're upset and anxious, we soothe them with compassion. We tell them that it's going to be okay, or at least we will get through this. We have the strength and power to come through this. So in the same way, on the Coronavirus Challenge website, we have an audio exercise, another method essentially, that you can overcome anxiety by speaking to this worried part of you and gently, soothing and calming, just like you do your own child, soothing and calming the anxious part of you. So many times don't we read books saying, you've got to love yourself, you know, self love, that's what it's all about. And all these years, I've never understood this until I really went deeper and said, this is about loving the different parts of us which have these different emotions. So loving this part of us that is anxious through that exercise, and we all have the ability to do that, because when we do this, when we take a step back and we soothe and calm, we connect with a loving, wise self, the adult, compassionate part of our being. If we get carried away with our emotions, we step more into the fearful, childlike part that is overwhelmed with anxiety. So this is a practice. We practice stepping back, becoming the wise, compassionate adult, and soothing and calming our anxiety. And we can all do this. It's part of something that's built within us. And I've given you the exercise within the Coronavirus Challenge, so I hope you will give that a go. It's a beautiful, wonderful exercise. And if you've got regular anxiety, I really encourage you to do that exercise every day together with regular meditation. So overcoming our Anxiety about the pandemic. Firstly, soothing and calming our worried parts with compassion. And secondly, we're indulging in our regular meditation. So ideally we've got time now. 20 minutes of meditation in the morning, 20 minutes of meditation in the evening. And within the coronavirus challenge, there's a whole video on day four which is all about how we meditate with all the instructions there. And there are also lots of guided meditations that you can find on the site. So we'd love for you to once again share today's video. So we've got to get this message out there, spread this information, boost more people's immune systems. So please do share this video now on your Facebook page, groups that you're part of, let's get the word out there and let's spread this message. So please do share today's video and give me your, your hearts, your little messages, your little moticons. Always nice to see those flashing across the street screen. So we've gone through two ways of reducing our anxiety, soothing our anxiety using that parts process and secondly, regular meditation. The third way that we can reduce our anxiety, and I know many of you are already doing this, is to switch off the news at the moment because this is the only thing on the news. There's a morbid curiosity that we have about what are the latest figures or we are following step by step and watching the 24 hour news cycle. This isn't good for our mental and emotional well being. Of course it's a challenging time the planet is going through, but it doesn't help us turning this crisis into a drama. Something that we're watching every moment of every day or constantly refreshing ourselves it because actually at some level there are parts of us that thrive on that drama. So we give ourselves permission to switch off the news. So let's switch off the news. Let's find out what we need to know. Okay. What are the practical things we need to know in order to take care of ourselves and our families? Right, we know that. Great. But we don't need to keep watching it and indulging the news or even our social media feeds. All of our social media feed is pretty much about the coronavirus. So it's worth checking out of our social media and doing things which uplift our spirits. So obviously one of the things you can do right now is to do the coronavirus challenge, which is lots of uplifting videos, meditations and exercises to help you through this challenging time. And it's a great opportunity to boost our immune system. You Know how many times when we're so busy do we say, oh, I really should take up that new process of exercise or activity, I really should, you know, meditate now, or I really should get my sleep back, back to normal. Now is the time. Let's use this time wisely. It's very, very precious time. Time to go inwards. And they say when you can't go outside, go inside, connect deep within yourself and let's go on a journey. And I'd love for you that once you've finished the coronavirus challenge videos, those 10 days of videos and meditations, I'd love for you to take the Meaning of Life experiment. This is a great opportunity to do that. And for those of you who don't know what the Meaning of Life Experiment is, it's a 30 day program of videos and meditations, a whole spiritual journey to go inwards and discover more about yourself, about your happiness, discover more meaning in your life and your life purpose. And you can find that. You can Google it or go to app store or play store and simply type in meaning of life experiment. Now, what are some other methods we can reduce anxiety? So we've talked about switching off the news. Let's re engage with joy in terms of finding those activities and hobbies and pastimes that we've always wanted to do but never had the time. And what reduces our anxiety, especially in what we call the right prefrontal cortex. So a lot of anxiety or depressive thoughts, they occur more in this part of the brain and this is the creative part of the prefrontal cortex. So engaging in learning an instrument or creative writing or dance, all of these things engage the creative juices and stop us from being anxious. They're really, really powerful. So please do think about what creative pursuits can you engage in to really support yourself emotionally through this challenging time. That's really, really kind of important. And of course exercise, so we call it exercise, but actually in the program we talk about energizing the body, movement, activity. There's plenty of apps out there that can support us and that really keeps the anxiety at bay and keeps the energy moving in terms of our emotions. Good. So those are some ways that we can reduce our anxiety. And underlying that layer of anxiety, and this is something we'll talk more about in a couple of days. Time can be something called grief. Now, grief we experience when we have loss, we have that sadness that we had all these things in life. We had our job, we had the people that we saw every day, we had our family Gatherings, and suddenly we've lost our normality, our normal way of life. So there can be some grief, emotions which often get trapped in our bodies around this kind of area. And that can mean that we find it difficult to fully be present or to fully be happy in the moment because there's this dark cloud almost hanging over us. A sense of despair or lack of safety can be there as well. That can be linked to the sadness of what is happening in the world. How are we going to handle this, our normal way of life? We've lost that. So it's becoming aware of that grief and that sadness that may be there and observing it with a calm, centered mind. And it will pass over time and it may pass quickly, it may take some time, but we're all on that journey from when we first experience a shock or a change in our lives, terms of this new coronavirus pandemic and what it means to our lives and the changes we're going through, right through to a tolerance, right through to a gradual acceptance of where we are. So what allows our grief to reduce, what allows our sadness to reduce, what allows our anxiety reduce, is to gradually move to a sense of acceptance and peace with what is going on. And in the Coronavirus challenge, we give you lots of tools and techniques to gradually make that journey. So whatever is happening in the news, whatever is happening in the world, you can still keep your spirits up, still keep, maintain your balance and your equilibrium, which then helps support your own immune system. So all of these different things are connected. And when we stay positive, when we meditate, we send out positive vibrations to the world around us. And on top of that, we support the stretched healthcare systems because we are taking care of our own health and our own immune systems. Good. So I think the rest of the information on how to reduce anxiety, as I said, is on the coronavirus challenge. So please do check it out and share it with your friends and family. It's the coronaviruschallenge.com so let's go to any questions that you may have now. So I'm just going to take a look at what questions we have. So in the comments section underneath this video, please do share any questions. I know you may have many questions, so it's good time for a few questions that I can answer. We'll say a few hellos as well. It's always nice to see people from all over the world tuning in. So, Judith from Lancashire, welcome to you. Okay, so once again, if there are any questions that you have, I'd love to Be able to answer them right now. Jojo Sharing. I'm feeling too overwhelmed to do great self care. I'm on the Gupta program right now. Yes, I know that many of you are experiencing that sense of overwhelm. It's too much. It's overwhelming what we are experiencing. I want you to know, first of all that you're not alone in feeling that sense of overwhelm. And I'd love for you to be patient with yourself. Observe that sense of overwhelm that you're experiencing. Where do you feel it in your body? Where are those sensations? Observe it with that compassion. That's the first thing, is not to get overwhelmed by the sense of overwhelm, but know that it's normal and to observe it. And then the second and third and fourth stages of how we let that go once again are in the coronavirus challenge. And when it comes to self care, we don't want it to become a catch 22 where you feel too overwhelmed to indulge in self care. But actually indulging in self care is exactly what we need right now to deal with the sense of overwhelm. And sometimes when we're in this state, our sanctuary is just sitting and meditating. I've known some people that when they feel this sense of shock and overwhelm, what they've decided to do is, you know, they just can't handle it. They literally just sit and meditate for half an hour or an hour or even longer until they're able to bring their minds back to balance. I'm not saying you sit there and meditate all day, but what I'm getting at is that that sense of overwhelm is where there has been a surge of emotions that overwhelms us and the energy doesn't know where to go. It's a bit like a pressure cooker when the heat is suddenly turned on. So literally like the heat is being turned on right now in terms of the challenges the planet is going through, that pressure cooker builds up and those are the thoughts and emotions churning within our minds. And when we meditate and we are still and we observe it, it's like lifting the lid on the pressure cooker and we release the steam. We release that pressure step by step, very gently, and that means we gradually feel better. So please know that there are ways through this, through this overwhelm that you're experiencing. Sitting and being still is one of them to allow the mind to be able to release all of those emotions and also changing our perspectives. So if you're feeling overwhelmed by what you're seeing around you. Let's go one step deeper and say, what are my underlying beliefs? What are my underlying worries about the situation? And often we will find that we might be catastrophising the situation, so we might have unconscious worries such as, this is the end of the world, things are never going to be the same again, I won't be able to handle it, it's too much, etc. So we notice what are the underlying fears that we have? Or we may have a sense that we can't handle it. So underlying the overwhelm, sense of overwhelm, and we see this in the Gupta program as well, is a sense that I can't cope, I won't be able to handle the situation. And the most disempowering thing for our nervous system is to feel that I can't handle it. And instead, let's look to uplift ourselves with connecting with those around us. Who helps uplift us positively? Who gives us positive vibrations, whether it's watching a video or connecting with our friends and family? Because I want you to know that every single one of you has. Has that strength and power and human spirit to come through this and work through this. Think of all the challenges you've been through in your life, how difficult they felt at the time. But you're here now. You got through it, and you can get through this situation too. And something that can sometimes overwhelm us is the sense that it's always going to be like this is what we call eternalizing a problem, because it feels overwhelming. The mind can't see anything else. And especially the mike, the monkey, or whatever this part of you feels like inside. This part is almost like a childlike part that feels so overwhelmed that it can only see what's happening right now. And actually we recognize that this is a temporary situation. How long it will last for, we don't know. But please know that the human race has been through far worse in the past. The human race, you know, these types of pandemics have occurred every one to 200 years on the planet. And the ingenuity of humanity means that they, they find the cure, they find the vaccine, whatever is required right now. The world recovers and we move forward. The only hope that we have is that the way that we then move on is different. We don't want to return to the same way of being, both at the individual level and at the society level and at the planetary level. We hope that this transformation or this reason for transformation that we're going through actually shifts things. And analogy I want to share with you is let's think about the caterpillar turning into the butterfly. When that caterpillar goes into the cocoon, suddenly its life is completely changed and different and it goes into that cocoon. And can you imagine how painful it might be for that caterpillar to sprout wings out of its back? How painful that transition may be that the caterpillar can't be in its normal environment, but is stuck inside this cocoon. But the caterpillar knows that that cocoon is temporary. That eventually, as painful as that cocoon feels for ourselves individually and the planet, we will come out the other side. And if we have been calm and centered and we've used that time in the cocoon wisely, we will come through this with wings. We will have transformed ourselves because we took this time to go inwards and do all the things that we wanted to do, to elevate ourselves and transform our spiritual well being. And at the planetary level, this is a cocoon that the planet is in. Doesn't it feel like that sometimes we're all asked to stay indoors and not live the hurried, rushed life that we were used to, and instead go inwards and meditate and be with our family. It's a time for self reflection. Who am I? Why am I here on this planet? What can I contribute? All of these deeper questions we never have a moment to ask because we're so busy rushing in the outside world and now we're in that cocoon. First of all, let's see it as part of the natural process of the caterpillar turning into the butterfly. And secondly, let's know the cocoon is temporary. It's not going to be here forever. And we will be transformed if we use this time wisely. And that can help relieve our anxiety when we look at it from a completely different perspective. This is the moment of our calling. This is the moment for us to step forward and elevate our consciousness. And we have the time and the space to do this. So rather than watching the news, getting caught up in that negativity, bringing our vibrational level down through the negative thoughts that we have, let's instead take charge of our minds, calm our minds with compassion and love, and then use the time in the cocoon to grow, to express, to connect deep with our soul. This is soul work that we're up to here. And trust that there is a deeper meaning behind this that we can't see. And of Course, as I said, as the caterpillar transforms into butterfly, there is pain, but there is also transformation. You know, I remember when I personally went through me or chronic fatigue syndrome. At that time in my life, it was the worst part of my life. It felt like my life was over. I was depressed. I thought, I'm never going to get through this. I'm going to have this illness forever. And if anyone had come to me then and said, ashok, don't worry, this is for a deeper reason. This is for a bigger purpose that you can't see right now, I would have said, forget your throwaway bumper stickers. I'm ill. I feel awful. There's no silver lining here. And yet, whatever it took, I got through it. And it meant that I wanted to help others. And I researched the background to these conditions and set up a clinic to support others. And now I look back and I realize that period of time was a transformation in my life. I transformed as a human being in the way that I wanted to. And I was able to use that experience to support others. And it's been a wonderful journey. And I can see now, much later in my life, why I went through that experience. And so despite us seeing the pain and suffering around us, we can do whatever we can with, with compassion to support those around us. At the same time, let's take the speck out of our eye, take the dirt out of our eye, which is coloring our perception of what's happening and see that something will come through this and we will come through this, the planet will come through this and there will be a transformation as a result. Shelley says hello from Las Vegas. Hello to you, Shelley. Jim, lovely to see you from Chicago sharing Good News Network. Yes, there are. There's something called the Good News Network which spreads positive, uplifting stories about their current situation. JoJo says I'm finding it harder to meditate with a house full of people. Yes, I know many of us are experiencing the fact that we're now in a house or in a space with a lot more people than we're used to and certainly less time to ourselves. I think it's about really explaining to those around you how important your self care routine and your meditation is to you. So please do speak to your family members or whoever you're living with and then secondly is get them to join in. So what is your self care routine? Can some of them positively benefit from joining you, doing some yoga or breathing or meditation together? Might as well use that as an excuse to do that. Shelley shares I'VE been up much harder mountains. I know I can get through this. You can too. Brilliant. Inspiring words from Shelley. Thank you. And Claire shares Are supplements such as vitamin D worth taking to support the immune system? Yes. I certainly do believe that it's useful right now for us to take certain supplements in case we are low in those areas. So all of that information is within the Coronavirus Challenge. So in the Coronavirus Challenge, there will be videos on diet and supplements and things that directly boost our immune system based on the latest science. So I hope that you will have the opportunity to watch those videos. There's information on sleep and exercise and all these great things that we're not aware of because we're not being told about it. It's not the priority of the medical profession right now to provide us with information on preventative health care. So it's up to us to take charge of our health. And we do this by watching the videos, taking the exercises as part of the challenge. So once again, please do share today's video on your Facebook feeds on groups that you're members of. I'm sure there's so many thousands, if not millions of people out there who are experiencing anxiety so we can be that cog in the chain to help others and spread this message. Finally, tomorrow we will be doing a special gratitude meditation, which is a meditation for us to send out positive vibrations to healthcare workers and key workers on the front line, the people who are sacrificing their own time, their own health, potentially to help us get through this. And so as a gesture, let's all feel a sense of gratitude. I and when we come from a place of gratitude, gratitude actually boosts our own immune system, so we benefit from sending out those positive vibrations. So I'd love for you now, and many people feel like this. There are countries around the world where people are clapping on certain days to show their appreciation to the healthcare profession. And so we can do our bit by getting people to meditate together and show that gratitude. So please do tell all your friends and family about our meditation. It will be at 5pm UK time, 12 o' clock Eastern time, 9am Western Pacific time and 7pm Europe. And we'll all get to meditate together. Let's get hundreds of people together to meditate and send those positive vibrations around the world. So all it's left for me to do is to say thank you for watching. It's been lovely to be here with you. We're now going to be doing daily meditations here at 5 o' clock UK time for the next seven days, our coronavirus challenge seven day life meditation series. So please do bring all your friends and family here. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow at the same time. So thank you for watching and we'll see you tomorrow evening or daytime. Thank you and goodbye.