​Question everything and everyone, including yourself. Don't blindly follow anyone. reexamine your beliefs, don't believe everything you see, read or hear on the news - you are seeing things presented from a single view - not necessarily the whole picture. What I am suggesting you do is to THINK -figure things out for yourself, consider alternative ideas, find your own truth and what resonates within you.

Movement and stillness, now is the perfect time to do both. There are YouTube videos for any type of movement you would like to do and for many different types of meditation. Make this break from your routine a healthy, introspective time. Why not learn a new discipline like yoga or tai chi. ​

Focus on thoughts that make you feel good and turn off the news. ​

This can be an exciting time if you see that old systems and beliefs are breaking down and clearing the way for a new, healthier, kinder, more compassionate, more connected world.​

Find something to appreciate right now, with things exactly as they are and know that this moment in time is forever passing and passing forever to never return. ​

Situations and outer circumstances will be what they are, your control is in how you react to them. Your power and your peace lie within. Always bring it back to you. So how can you use this advice to weather the storm of the corona virus? What can you do to feel better, to take control, to grow? ​

Now is the perfect time to begin to practice meditation and the program below can help you to get started. 
Finding hope in uncertain times - a new 21 day meditation program being offered by Deepak and Oprah
​https://chopracentermeditation.com/login

I subscribe to a newsletter called Brain Pickings and also receive content on Facebook. This was the poem from this morning. The written version is below and I have included a link to a 2 minute (actually only 1:59) Youtube version. If you have never read Pablo Neruda's poems, you are truly missing out.

KEEPING QUIET
by Pablo Neruda
Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.
For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

​If we each use this time to transform ourselves we will emerge to a transformed world.
http://www.cccinspire.com/

No matter what is going on in your life or around you, the practice of gratitude, of finding something to be thankful for, will make everything better, even if the outside situation doesn't change. ​

Although I don't typically take something from Facebook and use it as my daily inspiration, I saw this yesterday and it seemed so appropriate given the situation of the world and I wanted to share it.
There is tremendous suffering all over the world, but knowing this need not paralyze us. If we practice mindful breathing, mindful walking, mindful sitting, and working in mindfulness, we try our best to help, and we can have peace in our heart. Worrying does not accomplish anything. Even if you worry twenty times more, it will not change the situation of the world. In fact, your anxiety will only make things worse. Even though things are not as we would like, we can still be content, knowing we are trying our best and will continue to do so. If we don't know how to breathe, smile, and live every moment of our life deeply, we will never be able to help anyone.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, in “The Heart of the Buddha's Teaching”.
Artwork: © Catherine Lazar Odell