The Virus And Isolation - Resisting, Surviving And Thriving

In the face of the enormous stress brought on by the Pandemic I was called to share my over 50 years of clinical practice experience in helping individuals and groups deal with life’s most stressful situations.

I offer trusted wisdom and simple, applicable tools such as guided imagery, meditation, self-hypnosis, and mindfulness to help you deal with all of the changes happening in the world.

Transcript

The show you're about to hear is a recording from Dr.

Miller's webinar series titled Life Meditations.

He began this series in response to the pandemic,

And his goal has been to provide wisdom,

Practical tools,

And comfort to people during these stressful times.

So welcome for those who are not aware of it.

I'm Dr.

Miller,

Emmett Miller,

And I practice a holistic form of mind-body medicine,

Which is really a field that I pioneered back in the early 1970s.

And most of you probably know me from my guided imagery meditations,

Either tapes,

CDs,

MP3 downloads,

Or streaming now.

We've been in so many different media now.

It's quite funny.

And we still have people ordering tapes,

Believe it or not.

So we try to fulfill some of those.

So I'd like to.

.

.

So I'm sure everyone that either you've heard my work or you've heard the work of some of the professionals,

The students I've trained,

Or you've listened to tapes and recordings made by students of my students,

Because there's thousands of them now.

The web is full of guided imagery and meditation things.

So I'm really happy to have helped get that movement started.

And I'd like to especially welcome the patients,

My patients and my coaching clients who are here with us,

As well as people who may be tuning in for the first time.

And my goals today are really the same as the goals that I follow in my practice,

Which is I like to help people basically reprogram their thinking,

To essentially rewire their nervous system so that they go beyond just a symptomatic treatment that characterizes much of today's mainstream medicine,

To get at the source of most of our physical symptoms,

As well as the source of our emotional imbalances through the use of this deeply relaxed state,

Which we use to awaken and strengthen the healing response,

And to facilitate wellness,

Success,

Happiness,

And love.

I've continued my practice during this sheltering in period,

And I'm working from my home office.

I'm still working with people.

And let me say that I am really pleased with the feedback that I'm getting from the people that I've been working with.

Congratulations on the resilience that you've shown,

The patience that you've demonstrated,

Your equanimity,

Your good humor,

The ability to be really loving with those with whom you are currently incarcerated.

And by the way,

Your donations and any purchases you make from shop.

Drmiller.

Com go directly into supporting these webinars and the newsletter.

And both are appreciated.

And of course,

If something that you can't afford,

Forget about it.

Just send me an appreciative comment.

I love it.

So today we're going to be talking about the virus and the isolation.

We're going to be talking about resisting and thriving in this strange environment that we find ourselves now.

And I must say that when I studied epidemiology,

I never realized that I was ever going to get a chance to apply what I knew and what I learned.

And I think that at least some of you have experienced the video that's entitled,

How to Calm COVID Fear,

Anxiety and Stress and Strengthen the Immune System.

Those are the ones that we recommended that you see that video.

And we also recommended that you take a listen to the antiviral heart-to-heart talk,

The virus protection guided imagery meditation and outsmarting COVID.

So when you signed up,

If you signed up,

You should have received access to those which are there at drmiller.

Com.

COVID,

Drmiller.

Com slash COVID.

I'm wondering how many of you have really listened to those,

Either the,

In particular,

The imagery there for protecting yourself.

And you have four choices that will pop up on your screen.

Never used it,

Used it a few times,

Used it daily or I can't get enough.

I love those.

So send those.

I'd be really interested in that feedback if you've used the three part antiviral imagery.

So today I want to explore with you some additional perspectives on mind tools and strategies for resisting and surviving and even thriving in the face of the pandemic and the family and social disruptions that have come about because of the isolation and quarantine.

In future presentations,

I'm going to go into specifically gratitude.

Another will be personal growth through loss and letting go because we're all having the experience of loss of one kind or another as a result of this situation.

I'm also going to focus on relationships,

Extremely important because we're all experiencing changes in relationships as people we can't be with.

Even people we can be with,

Often we can't touch them.

Some people are aware of the stress that it causes.

Other people are not aware of the stress and yet it still causes stress.

And of course,

Stress has a very important role to play in how active our immune systems are.

So we'll get into relationships.

Maybe we'll touch a little bit on it today too.

And then I'll keep coming up with the subjects that are going to arise for each of us as this coronavirus saga guides us into the future.

It is driving the bus and we have to learn how to be good passengers and how to balance ourselves and how to find opportunities in the challenges that we face.

In each of these presentations,

I'll have a guided imagery for you to allow you to embody the principles and strategies we discussed.

And it's about embodiment.

Nowadays,

Everyone pretty much has an idea of how dangerous stress is.

Actually,

It's more dangerous than most of us think.

But we have some idea and we have the idea that somehow when we're calm and peaceful and present,

That we have less problems with stress,

That that stress dissolves because we're balancing it with relaxation.

And yet how many of us have embodied that knowledge so that we stay calm and peaceful and free of stress,

Except for those times in which stress is useful for us.

Stress is useful but we have to know how to use it.

Simply allowing it to be there and we're biting our nails or we're feeling frustrated or angry or we're depressed and demoralized.

That's stress wiping us out and wiping out our immune systems.

So I invite you to keep coming back.

If you're on a mailing list,

We'll keep informing you.

The best way to stay in touch will be to get the newsletter.

I'll be dealing with things in more detail and other things.

So if you haven't gotten the newsletter,

Why don't you start doing it.

Everything I'm talking about here is free of course.

This is my donation to our national and planetary health.

And remember,

Each week when you come back,

I won't run out of things to share because I've been collecting an enormous amount of information over the last 50 years.

Now,

Let me say a little bit about the experiential part of it particularly for newcomers.

Some of you know it but it's always worthwhile to entertain yourself with this knowledge.

There are two phases.

The first phase has to do with entering the deeply relaxed state.

Now,

That's different from what we usually call relaxation,

Like lying down in front of the TV or kicking back at the bar with a few friends.

That's relaxation but it's not deeply relaxation.

Deep relaxation,

Or what I call the healing state,

I call it the healing state because when we're in that state,

It gives us the opportunity to transmit healing energy or healing algorithms if you like from the higher levels of your mind.

That is your prefrontal cortex.

That's where your conscious mind is.

That's system two.

That's where all higher level thinking takes place.

In the state of mind,

We can transmit that teaching,

That learning,

That information,

That algorithm,

Behavioral algorithm to the lower levels of the mind and to the nervous system.

This was something that I discovered back in the early 70s,

Primarily by studying and combining the similar features of deep meditation,

Prayer,

Self-hypnosis,

Autogenic training.

They're all different but there's a way they all overlap and that's what I was interested in.

So this is not limited to one particular technique or faith or denomination,

None of that.

This is what's common to them all.

And what we're talking about is how to put your prefrontal cortex,

The executive level of your mind in charge.

And that's the part that's operational when you are present.

It is your prefrontal cortex that we want to put in charge.

That is the part that can coordinate and adjust complex behavior.

It can focus and organize your attention.

It enables you to control your impulses and it adjusts your personality,

Your mood,

Your emotions,

And your self-esteem.

It's responsible for all complex planning,

For considering and prioritizing competing and simultaneous information,

Sound familiar?

And the ability to ignore external distractions.

External distractions like,

When is the economy coming back?

When are we going to be back?

That's not useful to you at this moment in time.

Can you ignore it?

Can you let go of those distractions?

And when you can do that,

That's the use of the prefrontal cortex.

And we use it to guide ourselves into deep relaxation because that takes us out of the fight or flight state that's produced by this lower level of your mind,

By a lovely little organ called your amygdala,

Or this part of your brain called the limbic system,

Or the paleomammalian cortex,

Or as I like to think of it as your monkey mind,

Your monkey brain.

And that's a very primitive part of your brain.

And it,

When we see a problem,

When we see a contradiction,

When there's something we want or something that we're concerned about,

That part of the brain,

Of the nervous system,

Takes this as a life or death situation.

Now,

You know,

Maybe you need to get to the store by a certain time today,

And you've got a bunch of things to do meanwhile,

And that's a problem for you.

But then you get anxious,

And you get anxious because this part of your mind thinks it's life or death.

So it brings up the stress reaction.

That's what makes us sick,

And that's what causes our problems and our illnesses.

The stress reaction brings up damaging chemicals into your body.

Then you come into the present and you calm that part of you.

Your conscious mind becomes clear,

And you enter the present moment,

Which is actually the only moment that exists.

All your thoughts about the past and all your thoughts about the future do not exist.

Only this moment.

So it brings you into radical connection with reality.

Stress,

The stress response,

Inhibits cognitive functioning.

That's perhaps the worst thing of all.

It decreases your ability to analyze,

To evaluate,

It decreases your ability to strategize and be creative.

Instead,

You find yourself saying and doing things that don't actually help in the current situation.

And often it brings up stereotyped behaviors like smoking or drinking or abusing your spouse or your kids,

Things that make matters even worse.

That's why until you learn how to bring your stress under control,

Then you're not able to access your creativity and invent a way to actually solve the problem.

It really is that simple.

That's the first phase.

Second phase,

While in this present receptive state of mind,

You intentionally rehearse the behavior that you want,

The behavior you want to see from your body,

The emotional behavior that you want to see from yourself,

The thought patterns that you want to see occurring for you.

So that's step two.

So now let's go ahead and have the experience now that I explained something about what it's all about.

So to begin with,

Allow yourself to be in a comfortable position,

Because if you're in some awkward position,

Pretty soon you're going to feel the awkwardness of it and you're going to have to move,

And that kind of pulls you out of the state.

So in a position that you could almost go to sleep in if you wanted to,

Sitting or lying down.

Then focus your awareness on a point on the wall or the ceiling opposite you,

Or some point on the screen that you're looking at now,

Something that's not moving.

Fix your eyes there and don't let them move.

And by keeping your eyes fixed on that point is a way of your telling your unconscious mind,

Telling your monkey mind that you're going to be in charge of your awareness,

What I call selective awareness or mindfulness.

And as you look at that point,

Notice that everything else in the room fades into a blur because you're focusing your attention there.

And as you're looking at that point,

Become aware there's no other place you need to go,

No other place that you need to be,

Nothing else that you have to do.

Then there's no problem that you need to solve at this moment in time.

And therefore you can give yourself permission to relax.

And you may notice that immediately your eyelids go,

Well,

I'm not really looking out at anything,

I'm sort of daydreaming,

And I'd be just as comfortable,

Maybe even more comfortable to let the eyelids close.

And when it feels as though it would be more comfortable to let your eyelids close,

Allow them to close.

And then behind your closed eyelids,

Gradually let your eyes roll upward to you looking upward toward the back of your forehead.

And what you're really doing is you're focusing your attention on your prefrontal cortex,

Which lies just behind your forehead.

And imagine you can see the word relax written there.

You might see it like a neon light.

It may even flash R-E-L-A-X.

Or some people would prefer to look at a flower to see a beautiful wave on the ocean cresting in toward the shore,

Or Mount Fuji,

Or whatever represents relaxation to you.

And when you do that,

You notice your eyelids will relax all the way down to the point they don't want to open at all.

That's because your eyelid muscles are the smallest muscles in your body that you can voluntarily move.

Therefore they're the easiest to relax.

And when they relax down to the point they don't want to open at all,

Test your eyelids.

Feel how relaxed they are.

They just don't want to budge at all.

And as you test your eyelids,

Let that feeling of relaxation from your eyelids flow out into all the rest of your body.

Feel ripples of relaxation flowing from your eyelids through your forehead,

Through your scalp,

Through all the muscles of your face,

Like a gentle facial massage,

Relaxing the muscles around your mouth because you don't need to say anything.

You don't need to bite anything.

Let your jaw muscle droop open.

Feel your upper and lower teeth drifting apart.

That's it.

Now let that relaxation flow down into your neck,

And down through your shoulders,

And through your arms,

Through your elbows,

And your wrists,

Your forearms,

Your hands,

All the way down to the tips of your fingers.

And feel what the relaxation feels like when it's reached there.

And when you feel that relaxation in your fingertips,

Take a deep breath in and draw it up through your arms into the center of your chest.

And as you let that breath out,

Let it be a complete feeling of letting go,

And then stop breathing.

And let the air do the breathing for you,

Just as it does when you're deeply asleep at night,

Doing nothing.

Feel your chest rise and fall.

With each breath out,

Think the words,

It breathes me.

And you've done this before,

Many of you,

And of course you notice that each time you do it,

You're able to get there faster and faster,

And go deeper and deeper.

Each time,

Let yourself sink into that little pause.

After you breathe out and before you breathe in again,

Sink down into that little pause,

The quietest time of all,

For all your mind and body.

Good.

During that pause is the quietest time of all.

The time when you're closest to your spirit or to your soul,

As they tell me.

Good.

No matter where you are,

No matter what you're doing,

When you know that you're safe,

You can bring yourself back to this place of relaxation.

You can do it on break,

You can take 20 or 30 seconds sitting at your desk working,

Wherever you might be.

Just squeeze together two fingers,

Maybe your thumb and a forefinger or middle finger or whatever on one of your hands,

And let that be a signal to come back to this state of relaxation.

Sink into that pause after breathing out.

With each rising and falling of your chest,

Feel all the muscles of your chest and your back relaxing.

Feel your abdomen as it rises and falls,

That gentle massage of relaxation to all your internal organs as they relax.

And let that relaxation flow through your pelvic organs and through your thighs and your knees,

Through your legs and your ankles and your feet,

All the way down to the tips of your toes.

Good.

And notice how relaxed you feel.

And let's think of this as like the first level of relaxation,

As if you've just come down on an elevator and you're going to a deeper level.

Let your relaxation double as you go to the next level.

To do that in a moment,

I'm going to ask you to let your eyelids open and close.

And as your eyelids open and close again,

You feel your relaxation doubling over what you have now.

Open your eyes and close them.

That's it.

And feel your relaxation double.

Twice as relaxed,

Twice as comfortable.

And when you can feel that doubled relaxation in your eyelids,

Picture that symbol of relaxation on the back of your forehead.

As you test your eyelids,

Let that doubled relaxation flow from your eyelids throughout all the rest of your being,

Through every cell of your body,

A warm soothing wave of peace,

Calm,

Comfort,

Right out through the palms of your hands,

All the way down right out through the soles of your feet.

Wonderful.

Let every sound that you hear serve as a signal to relax and relax you even more.

Relax you deeper and deeper,

More and more free and more and more present.

And as your body becomes more and more relaxed and you become aware of the unnecessary thoughts that come along.

And each time an unnecessary thought comes along,

Put it on that blackboard in your mind's eye and imagine the unnecessary thought is like chalk words written on a blackboard.

Remember the relaxation in your eyelids.

And as you gently test your eyelids,

Imagine you're drawing a wet eraser across your mental blackboard,

Erasing the unnecessary thought and sending another doubled wave of relaxation from your eyelids throughout every atom of your being.

That's it.

And if that same thought or any other unnecessary thought comes along,

Simply erase in the same way.

You let go of thoughts about the past because the past doesn't exist anymore.

This moment is the only moment that exists.

My voice is the only sound that you are focused upon.

Your breath is the feeling within that you are focused upon.

There is no future.

The future hasn't even happened yet.

There's only now.

So whenever any thoughts about the past or the future,

Judgments,

Comparisons,

Evaluations,

Criticisms,

They're all distractions.

Let them go.

Erase them.

Be here and now.

That's wonderful.

Now let yourself float through time and space because you're free to travel to any place you might want to and you might float on a magic carpet if you like.

Or maybe you're like a time machine and you've got dials in front of you and you can dial up a really pleasant experience from your past.

Sometime maybe you're getting an A on a test or graduating school or giving birth or seeing your child for the first time or being with someone the day you knew that you had fallen in love or maybe an experience you had yesterday or it could be many years ago or it could be a beautiful sunset or a fantastic musical performance that you saw.

A time when you felt really excited.

Travel back.

Go back on your magic carpet or your time machine and recreate it in your mind's eye just as if you were going to describe that scene to me right now.

Describe it to yourself.

Where are you?

Look around.

See the sights around you.

See the colors.

See the movement.

Hear the sounds.

Hear what you're saying or what's being said to you or the music that's playing or the nightingale singing or the sound of the surf,

Whatever it is.

Go there.

It's your scene.

It's your beautiful memory.

Go into it.

Feel the joy.

Feel the love.

Feel the epiphany.

Feel the opening.

And as you feel that feeling,

Notice at the end of each breath you still sink into that pause and at the end of that pause is that little burst of light,

Of life,

Of love that begins each new breath all by itself.

Feel how it brings each new breath in and imagine it like a river of light flowing into your heart.

And imagine that river of light gets brighter and brighter as you feel yourself in the joy of this moment and continue to erase distractions more and more into it.

The more powerfully you can feel it,

The more deeply you can feel your love,

Your excitement,

Your confidence,

The thrill of being alive in this incredible world.

How wonderful.

Feel it.

We're all feeling it right now.

Imagine that it bubbles throughout your body and flows out through the tips of your fingers and the tips of your toes,

That it radiates from the skin of your body and travels out into the world,

Around the world,

Out into the universe.

Take it as far as your imagination can take it and enjoy it.

Good.

And imagine that some of that river of light that's flowing into you is flowing up from your heart into your thymus gland,

The master gland of your immune system that sits atop your heart like a crown.

Let the warmth of your heart spread into your thymus gland.

And imagine you can travel down inside your thymus gland as if you can ride on a little boat floating on that river of light and you come to a great field,

A huge field,

And you're standing on a dais,

On a podium high above the crowd made up of thousands and millions of white cells.

These members of your team whose job it is to protect you,

They love you.

Feel their love and let that light radiate from you out into every cell in your immune system and see them,

Those that were sleepy,

See them awakening,

Those that were awake,

See them becoming animated and energized.

Some of the younger ones are jumping up and down,

Clapping their hands like they're in a rock concert because they hear you and what you're saying is,

I love you and I want to share my love and my energy with you.

And you're instructing them to turn on those chemical factories within them to begin producing the antibodies and the chemical messengers that you need.

And envision those antibodies going out throughout your body and imagine them finding any viruses or bacteria that may be anywhere in your body,

Particularly envision them going to the linings of your lung.

Imagine them going to the linings of all of your breathing passageways.

Imagine them going to all the major organs of your body and then imagine that they come into contact with the virus and the moment they do,

They recognize it,

That's why they're called antibodies and they immediately latch onto that virus and inactivate it.

Some of your cells may have become infected with a virus or a bacterium of some kind.

See the antibodies attaching to that cell,

Inactivating the viruses within it and sending up a little red flag.

Meanwhile,

At the center,

At the master gland,

Chemical messages are being sent out and those chemical messengers are calling white cells,

Natural killer cells,

Macrophages are coming in by the tens of thousands,

By the hundreds of thousands and they see where those red flags are and they immediately gobble up the viruses that are connected to the antibodies and they gobble up the infected cells and digest them and turn them into simple elements that your body can recycle.

Envision your army winning the war out there and meanwhile back in your field,

Even as you see these armies streaming out,

There are young cells coming in from the sides and they're becoming excited and they're traveling out.

And meanwhile,

There are other cells within your thymus,

Within your immune system that are listening and gradually they hear when the virus has been tamed,

When the infected cells have been eliminated,

When the battle's about won and they begin to stop sending out so many chemical messages because they are choosing to not overreact but to maintain the balance.

Good.

Come back once again to that exciting scene that you went back to and if another one comes along that's more thrilling,

More full of love,

More excitement,

More full of Spirit that connects you to your soul,

To the Spirit that moves through all things,

To the Holy Spirit,

To God,

Goddess,

All that is,

Whatever you connect with that brings you life and love and energy and power,

That's where you need to be.

And any time you give yourself that signal of squeezing those fingers together,

You can come inside and give yourself another dose of healing.

That's wonderful.

Now,

While that process continues inside,

Continuously,

I want you to take yourself back to a time in the future,

Maybe 10 minutes from now or maybe an hour from now or a day or a week,

Whatever.

But I want you to see yourself dealing with the challenges in your life right now.

Before you might have thought of them as obstacles.

There are no obstacles.

They're just challenges.

And I like a good challenge,

Don't you?

Think of some of the challenges you have to meet later today or this week or into the future,

Wherever it calls to you.

But see yourself going at it with calmness,

With excitement,

Fully motivated,

Filled with energy,

Power,

Love,

Joy.

And envision yourself solving that problem,

Meeting that challenge.

In fact,

I want you to imagine that you find an opportunity.

And because every time you meet an obstacle and see it as a challenge,

Well then that's been an opportunity for you.

And when you see that challenge as an opportunity,

Simply seeing it that way is a victory because you're not stuck back there.

Good.

And now just picture yourself maybe several months into the future.

After you've dealt with all of those challenges,

Turned to mental opportunities,

And you've created incredible success for yourself.

You don't have to know exactly what kind of success.

You'll be able to find that by being present at each moment along the way.

I just want you to see how thrilling it's going to be to have reached there.

Picture yourself looking and feeling the way you want to look and feel,

Dressed the way you want to be dressed,

Doing something that's celebrating your victory,

Celebrating your health with those you love.

And imagine that there are hundreds and thousands of people all around the world celebrating right along with you because we're all in this together.

You feel that you can draw energy from all those people around you who are doing exactly what you're doing now.

Wonderful.

Remember,

Each time you picture yourself the way you want to be,

You become more this person because this is the person you really are down deep inside.

Each time you come back and practice it,

You become more and more in touch with it.

And so as you very slowly and very gradually bring your awareness back to the physical space around you right now,

Let me end with a quotation that was very important to me in my life.

I learned it back when I was in high school.

It's a quotation by Teddy Roosevelt,

Who was a kind of a weak and sickly kid,

A little bit like I was as a kid,

Had asthma and wasn't very much.

But what I learned,

And of course he went on to become the leader of the Rough Riders,

President of the country,

And he said,

Far better it is to win glorious triumphs,

To dare mighty things,

Than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much,

Because they live in that gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

I read that,

Said no gray twilight for this one,

I want those victories.

And I've had a great time sharing with you some of my victories.

Let me say that one of the best ways for you to relax,

Relieve stress,

And get into a state of mind that's really,

Really valuable,

Is through laughter.

You've heard that laughter is the best medicine.

It's one of the best medicine,

And what does that mean?

Well,

And can it help us fight the coronavirus?

The answer is yes.

Laughter reduces pain,

And it allows us to endure comfort much easier.

It improves job performance,

Especially when we need to be creative or to solve complicated problems.

Laughter is the cornerstone,

Humor and laughter is the cornerstone of good marriages,

And it's essential to all close and intimate relationships.

In fact,

Abraham Lincoln said it's the shortest distance between two people,

Is a smile.

And when you laugh with someone,

It synchronizes your brain.

So if I tell you a story and you laugh,

We become synchronized.

It attunes us to each other and enables us to be aligned on things.

And it also increases our resilience.

There's a wonderful old Norwegian proverb,

Which is,

He who laughs,

Lasts.

And when it comes to being resilient,

I'm kind of an expert on that.

Having grown up in the inner city of New York and being of the wrong race,

That's a tough one.

Well,

If I tell you a little joke about New Yorkers,

Turns out there's a plane,

And the plane crashes in darkest Africa.

And on this plane,

There are three fellows riding.

There's a German,

There's a Japanese,

And there's a New Yorker.

Well,

They all survive this crash,

But as they're climbing out of the wreckage,

They suddenly find that they're surrounded by all these guys wearing breechcloths and with bones out of their nose with spears.

And they start poking them and kind of force them to walk down this pathway.

Pretty soon they come to this native village with all these grass huts and poke them with the spears to drive them up.

There's one hut that's bigger than all the others.

And this grand fellow comes back out and he's got decorations all over.

It's clear that this is the chief.

And the chief looks down at him and says,

Ah,

I see.

So you are the three who crashed in that little bonanza that was flying over.

And they said,

Ah,

You speak English?

He said,

Well,

Yes.

In fact,

I was educated at Harvard and in Oxford.

And so we tell him,

Take these spears out of our back and let us go.

And he says,

Well,

You know,

I would,

But you know,

I'm chief of this tribe and our religion says that,

Unfortunately,

You need to be,

You know,

Need to be put to death.

It's not that I would do it,

But I don't really have a choice.

But you know,

This is not done out of meanness.

It's a sacred thing.

We want you to know that we'll be using the parts of your body.

We'll be using your skulls as our sacred vessels on our altar.

We'll be using the long bones of your body to stir our sacred cauldrons.

And we'll be using your skin to make our sacred canoes.

And so it's,

And not only that,

But you can get to choose,

You know,

How you end your life.

And a German guy says,

Well,

I understand that.

You happen to have a Luger around?

He says,

Well,

Actually,

I do have one.

And so he does away with himself with that.

And the Japanese fellow says,

Do you happen to have a sword?

They go,

Oh,

Okay.

They give him the sword.

He does Harakiri and takes care of them.

And the New Yorker says,

Do you have a fork?

I say,

We have a fork.

Okay,

We have a fork.

They give him a fork.

He starts stabbing himself,

Stabbing himself all over.

His body's now covered with little spurts of blood coming out all over.

And they try this,

Confused,

And they say,

What are you doing?

And he goes,

Screw your canoes.

Yeah,

That's the kind of resiliency that we have in New York.

You'll find some way to be strong in no matter what situation.

And right now we need to be able to find good humor and ways to be strong in our current situation.

And I mean,

Think about it,

That for the first time that I know of,

We can actually save the world by lying in front of our TV sets.

So let's not screw this one up.

You can do this one.

And then,

You know,

There's going to be a baby boom in nine months.

Yeah,

And I guess the babies will be called coronials.

And then in 2033,

I guess we'll have the rise of the quarantines.

So yeah,

There's anxiety and irritation,

But think of how the oyster handles the irritation.

Make a pearl.

In whatever way works for you,

See how you can make a pearl.

And if you're dealing with people who are struggling with the pandemic and social isolation and so forth,

I can understand that.

What I want to share with you is that if you remember why you went into being a physician or a counselor or therapist or coach,

Whatever it was,

Remember the positive motivation.

Remember your desire to help people.

Remember the love that you had for people.

And you chose to go into a profession in which you would be able to express your love for people by helping them deal with their issues,

With the pain that they were having.

And of course you went into it because you're empathetic.

You went into it because you're compassionate,

Which means you not only feel what someone else feels,

But you care about the fact that they feel it,

And that you deeply desire to help them.

And that comes from that love in your heart,

That love that we keep trying to connect with,

Connect with even more deeply each time we go into that healing state.

So remember that.

And again,

When you're in the healing state,

That's what I want you to be in touch with.

And so I would say to you now,

If your mind is completely open and your body completely relaxed,

Is to remember that love that was at the basis of all that.

And let that love grow stronger.

Breathe it throughout your body and feel how deep it is in you.

Don't think about anything else or where you've worked or the past.

Just be in touch with that love and understand that as you apply that love,

As you transfer that love to people,

You will hear about their problems and you will feel their problems and you will help guide them at least one step further,

Closer to healing with their problems.

And in so doing,

You have given them the priceless gift of love and that it will take something from you.

But that something is love.

Come back inside.

Go into that love.

There's an infinite supply,

A deep reservoir of love within you.

Give yourself enough time to tap into it.

Remember how vast it is and visualize yourself drinking from it or taking buckets of it if you wish.

And imagine you're taking that with you to your next session.

If you have a session you're still feeling sad about in the past,

Take the love there.

People will be injured,

People will get sick and people will die.

And so will I and so will you.

That's not the tragedy of life.

The tragedy of life is to be cut off from the love.

And you are saving people in the only way that we can save them.

And you need to celebrate that.

And to be with those who love you,

Call them.

Ask them to give you love.

People know how to do that and people are learning that with this current stuff that we're going through.

Ask for love.

Refill your cup.

Light your candle from someone whose candle is burning brightly.

Good.

But then we talk of being of good humor.

Just think of that.

It's flowing,

It's like a liquid flowing through your body.

And to be able to really see the humor in a situation,

It requires you to be present.

If you're committed to being anxious or grumpy or angry,

Then it's you're not going to be entertained.

You can hear a really good joke told by somebody you don't like,

You won't like that joke.

And so if you're stuck in some particular feeling,

Then you don't get the humor.

So the trick is,

You know,

You can't explain humor,

You just have to be in a relaxed enough state to be able to see that every cloud has a silver lining.

Look for the pearl in every oyster.

For now,

I'd like to thank you so much and remind you by all means,

Until next time,

Stay tuned.