Many of you have written into the clinic expressing that you are feeling quite anxious right now, that you’re having challenges in terms of your own emotions.
In this current situation, that is perfectly normal. You know, when we go through challenging times like this, it can sometimes feel like we’re alone or we’re going through this without any support. And I want you to know that whether it’s your friends, your family, or here at the Gupta Program, we want to do whatever we can to support you through this challenging time.
You know, the press, the media are focusing on avoidance and isolation, and obviously that’s incredibly important. At the same time when we can work on our own immune systems, when we strengthen our immune systems, that means that if we do get the virus, we’re less likely for it to cause an infection, and also less likely to have it for a prolonged period of time or be hospitalized. So some of the changes, the lifestyle changes, and some of the mind changes that we do within the coronavirus challenge, they have been shown, believe it or not, to reduce your chances of infection from a virus by up to 80%. Okay. So this isn’t just something that we push away and think, “Oh yes, it’d be nice to boost the immune system.” Actually there are active things that we can do right now to boost our immune system so that we reduce our chances of getting ill, we reduce our chances of actually passing this onto other people. We reduce the chances of taking up those very precious hospital beds and the ventilators out there.
So we’re doing this for ourselves, our families and communities, and also for the wider public. That is taking charge of our own immune systems. And therefore I’d love for you, if you haven’t already had a look at it, please do check it out at www.thecoronaviruschallenge.com, and you’ll see lots of videos on diets. What is the latest science on how we can use our gut and our biome to boost our immune system against this virus? There’s lots of information on exercise, or activity and how we can energize our body at a physical level. There’s information on sleep, and actually sleep is crucial to replenishing our immune systems. And many of you may know that people on the front line, that medical staff, because they’re stretched, a lot of them are falling ill because they’re not getting enough sleep.
And finally, and probably most importantly, our minds. If we’re stuck in anxiety, if we’re stuck in negativity about what’s going on, we ourselves will reduce the effectiveness of our immune systems. So what’s important is that we all do what we can. This is empowering us. You know, many of us are sitting at home thinking, what can we do? This is something that we can all do for ourselves, our community, and our society. So I’d love for you to share the Coronavirus Challenge with all your friends and family, and share it on all your social media.
Now for those of you who are new to meditation, how can meditation help us in the current situation? Well firstly, meditation has been clinically shown to boost our immune systems, and there’ve been studies that have found that if someone meditates, they half, or more than half, the chances of getting infection from a virus. So assuming that the COVID-19 virus behaves very similarly to previous viruses, then that could mean that we halve the chances of actually getting ill from it. And we know that many people do get the virus but have no symptoms, because obviously their immune systems are able to handle the virus effectively.
That’s something that happens with regular meditation, is halving potentially the chance of getting viruses, and halving the number of days with viruses. And if you think that sounds too good to be true, on our website where we talk about meditation, we actually step-by-step look at the literature, look at the studies done, and you can read for yourself the very powerful effects of regular meditation on our immune systems, just 20 minutes a day.
And secondly, we’re doing it because it reduces our anxiety. At the moment, as we said, a lot of you are experiencing anxiety. So when we meditate readily we just feel calmer and more relaxed. And finally, we do it to spread positive vibrations. You know when we meditate, we not only uplift ourselves and cleanse ourselves, but we also send positive vibrations to the people around us, our families, our friends, and the wider society. It’s a bit like when you go into a room and even though you don’t see the person’s face, you can tell that something’s up. They say you can cut the atmosphere with a knife, or I was just getting some bad vibes off that person. We all have that intuition to pick up on the vibrations around us. And when we meditate, when we connect to that source, we actually spread those positive vibrations, positive energies, and positive blessings to those around us.
So it’s working at many different levels, when we meditate. It’s an investment for ourselves and the people around us. So we’re going to meditate now together. And if you’re new to meditation, what I’d love for you to do is just sit cross legged if you can, or just sitting in a chair with your feet on the floor and your legs uncrossed, and make sure your phones are switched off, so make sure people know not to disturb you for the next 20 minutes, and just allow yourself to flow with what’s going on.
And if you’re new to meditation, you may find that as we go through this, you find that all that’s happening is you’re just having lots of thoughts, and that’s okay. But the difference is when we meditate together with our eyes closed, we’re aware that we’re thinking. So normally we’re thinking, thinking, thinking, and our thinking mind overtakes us. But when we meditate, we allow ourselves to take a step back and become a witness of all these vibrations of thoughts and emotions within us. So as we meditate, even if your mind is very busy, even if there are lots of thoughts and emotions that you sense, we’re just observing them, we’re observing our dear beloved minds with compassion.
To learn more and experience my Overcoming Anxiety About Coronavirus meditation, please watch the video below. And please share the video with others who could benefit from the knowledge.
https://www.facebook.com/guptaprogram/videos/621473615103468/
