Keeping a Positive Mindset During COVID-19 | Jack Canfield

If you're like most people I know, you've been severely impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic. In many countries, one fourth of the workforce has been laid off or are unemployed. And if you're still working, it's under a lot of strained conditions. Working at home with your kids, the pressures of supervising their virtual online or home line schooling, dealing with the fears of getting sick or even dying, and the uncertainties of the future, the possibility of a worldwide recession, and so much more. Simply put, there is a lot more stressing going on in the world. So what I would like to do today is to share some practical ways to de stress yourself, some ways to create more peace and more calm in your life in the midst of a chaotic present and an uncertain future. So here is a list of some activities that research as well as my personal experience have shown to be effective. Now, the first thing, and I know you've heard me mention this numerous times, is to build in a time, even if it's brief, for meditation every day. Now I'm not perfect at this either, but I do my best to meditate for 20 minutes in the morning every day. Now, if I have to get up at 5:30 in the morning to teach a webinar for people in India at 6.30am Due to the huge time difference, I will still meditate for at least 10 minutes. And if you've never meditated before, just practice a simple form of meditation. To start, all you have to do is sit in a comfortable position and close your eyes and just place your full awareness on the physical sensation of your breathing. Now an easy way to do this is just focus on the sensation of the rise and fall of your chest and stomach as you breathe in and out. Invariably, after a minute or two, you probably find yourself and your attention drifting off to other things, such as thinking about what you're going to eat for breakfast, a problem you're having at work, some project that needs your attention, and so on. And when you notice that you're doing that, just bring your awareness back to your breathing. Now, another simple form of meditation is to focus on the repetition of a word or a phrase. I like to focus on a two syllable word or two words, repeating one syllable word as I silently say to myself as I inhale and one syllable or word as I exhale. I've used the word relax, inhaling, re exhaling, lax Also the phrase be still. I've also used the phrase I am calm, inhaling I am and exhaling calm. Dr. Herbert Benson the Harvard Medical school found that just repeating the word relax worked as well as many of the words taught by spiritual teachers, phrases like Sat, Nam or Soham and others. It was enough to bring on what he called the relaxation response and lower people's blood pressure. Now there's also many guided meditations that you can find online in places like YouTube that you can follow along with. There are also many apps that you can buy that will help you. One of my favorites is called Braintap and you can check it out online. Braintap is one word when you're searching for it. Another technique for de stressing and creating more calm is listening to music and calming sounds. We know that music connects with your autonomic nervous system which controls your brain function, your blood pressure and your heartbeat, and with the limbic system which is where your feelings and your emotions live. So when you're stressed, your nervous system releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. Now, listening to the right kind of music can switch off your stress response and help your mind and your emotions calm down faster than they would without music. And you can search the Internet, the Apple Music Store and stations on streaming music services like Pandora, Apple Music or Amazon Music that feature music often categorized as spa music, relaxation music, ambient music, and also soundscapes which are sounds from nature like the sounds of waves lapping up against the shore or the sounds of a babbling brook or wind in the trees, or bird sounds, all of which have a calming effect on the nervous system. Now another thing you can do is take a hot bath. Sitting in a hot tub or floating in a pool or other tranquil body of water is another way to bring on relaxation responses. Your body responds to being immersed in water, especially warmer hot water. I can remember visiting my brother in law when he was working for the state Department and stationed in Cameroon in Africa, just a few miles north of the equator, the ocean water was like a hot tub and I remember bobbing up and down in the gentle warm waves for several hours and feeling more relaxed than it almost air any other time in my life. Now sitting in a hot tub or taking a long hot bath. Now another proven way to help to relax is exercise. Just 20 to 30 minutes of exercise helps reduce mental and emotional stress. You know, when I was younger I would end every day at work by playing racquetball with one of my colleagues at the local ymca. And being in the present moment focused only on the next point and exerting myself physically was extremely relaxing. Now today my wife and I will take a 20 minute walk either before or after dinner. And the combination of the two of us walking along with being out in nature is a great way to let go of all the stresses of the day and think about this. Walking costs nothing and it's not overly strenuous. Now obviously, going for a run also works wonders. Now another thing that research has shown to help create an interstate of calm is reading, which puts your mind into a trance like state, slowing down your heart rate and relaxing your muscles. In fact, one study showed that reading for even six minutes a day reduced stress by 68%. Now obviously what you read is important. Reading the news, especially these days with all the news of the pandemic, the economic woes, the social unrest and the political divide in most countries can actually cause more stress. However, reading a novel has been shown to reduce anxiety. One of the things I do is always have a good novel at hand to read before I go to sleep at night. Now you may also remember that I teach something called the Hour of Power as a morning discipline of meditating for 20 minutes, reading something uplifting like a Chicken Soup for the soul book for 20 minutes, and exercising for 20 minutes. I also recently learned that most billionaires do these three things every morning. Now another great de stressor is laughter. Now laughter may not at first glance seem like it would make you calmer and while you're laughing is probably more invigorating. But the calm comes in the moments that immediately follow the laughter. And research has shown that laughter decreases the levels of cortisol in your blood and releases endorphins which reduce pain and make you happier. Now fortunately, I'm married to a woman who makes me laugh almost every morning before I even get out of bed. However, you can listen to stand up comedy on the radio, television on recordings. You can even ask Alexa or Siri to tell you a joke or play some comedy by Robin Williams or Amy Schumer or Chris Rock. Now before the shutdown happened, I would only listen to the comedy channels on Sirius XM whenever I drove my car. Right now my car is not getting driven very much. Now there's also a movement called Laughter Yoga, which has a number of exercises that get you laughing really deep belly laughs in the morning and it creates a more happy and relaxed rest of your day. And you can research that online for more information as well. Laughter Yoga Another way to create more calm is by doing some deep breathing exercises. And one that is simple and yet powerful is called box breathing because it has four equal sides to it. You inhale deeply for the count of four, you hold your breath for the count of four, you exhale for the count of four, and then you hold your breath out for the count of four. And as you get good at that, you can increase it to a count of six. Now, do this with your eyes closed for three to five minutes, and you will definitely feel the calming effect of the that. Now, finally, there are a few blends of oils, essential oils that you can diffuse, rub into your hands and inhale like this. Now, here's essential oil called Peace and Calming. And so I like to take this and I will open it up and I'll rub a few, drop a few drops into my palm of my hand. And then what I'll do is I will rub it around like this and then I will rub it in my palms and then I will inhale it. Take about 20 deep breaths. And research shows that within 20 seconds, the aroma of that oil will actually start having a calming effect in your brain within 20 seconds. Now, you can also rub it on your wrists and the bottom of your feet. Do that at night. It will help you relax, usually very quickly. As I said, when you inhale an aroma of an essential oil, it literally starts to affect your brain within 20 seconds. Now, there's a couple of blends that are designed for this one's called Peace and Calm, which I just picked up in Rug on my Ham. One's called Stress Away, another which is called Lavender. And that's a single oil, which is another calming essential oil. It's often used at spas, put in the bath bombs, and even given out by hotels to rub on your pillow to ensure a good night's sleep. Now, if you'd like to know more about the many amazing uses of essential oils, you can Simply go to OilSwithJack.com and there's a lot of information there. And if you want one of our staff, you can talk to them about it and also learn how you can get these oils for yourself and use them effectively to de stress in your life. Now, another de stressor is called EFT tapping. Whatever stress, anxiety or negative feeling can be tapped away by tapping on a sequence of acupressure points. And often in as little as five minutes, you can tap out whatever is stressing you. Simply tap on these certain acupuncture points, which you can learn to do very simply. And probably the easiest way to do this today is to use the Tapping Solution app, which is developed by my friend Nick Cordner. All you have to do is type in the tapping solution app in whatever Internet browser you use, and you'll find out how you can download it to your cell phone, and the app literally guides you through the process. And also let me know what you think in the comments. So thanks again for watching, and here's to Staying calm no matter what. Now, if you found this video helpful, please make sure you like it. Share it with a friend or family member who may need it, and subscribe to my channel for more videos like this one, and for some additional exercises and tools for staying calm no matter what is happening in the world around you. Make sure to visit jackcampfield.com and check out the links in the description below.