Covid-19, Extra episode 1 : How to stay resilient in uncertain times
Hello Gentle Marketers! I
Welcome to The Gentle Business Revolution Podcast, the show where we talk about marketing your business by disrupting the current marketing paradigm.
I'm Sarah Santacroce, your host.
I decided to record an extra episode this weekend due to the current circumstances that we are all going through at the moment.
As some of you know, I'm based in Switzerland, so right in the middle of it as I record this on March 13th.
This is not an episode about the epidimic itself. I hope you got the right kind of information sources for that.
What I wanted to comment on is
a) be transparent about how I'm personally dealing with it
b) give you some ideas on how to stay grounded in these uncertain times and
c) invite you to a Collective Brainstorming on Resilience next Tuesday, 10am EST
Ok, so just about a week ago I was still being quite cynical about the whole thing. Thinking people were overreacting and panicking. Only a week later though I'm worried myself. Not so much about my personal health, but about everyone and the global impact this thing will have. On health, on the economy etc. On systems that are already cracked. I'm thinking of the US health system for example.
So yes, I now know that this has to be taken very seriously and I urge you to do the same. Not panicky seriously, but smart.
Now, luckily if you're listening to this show there's a good chance that you're working from home already. So yay, that's a huge benefit for us. We get to continue to do our work. Yes, there will be some loss in income due to client cancellations, workshop cancellations etc, but there are also opportunities to come up with creative solutions. More about that in a minute...
So how do you stay grounded in these difficult times?
I admit that this week I barely got anything done. No writing for my book, no new projects... I just didn't have the mental energy for it. I did nurture relationships though, and that is sometimes just as important. Oh, and I added about 20cm to my shawl that I'm knitting. So if that's how you're feeling right now, give yourself permission to surrender and just be. Not do. And reach out to some friends or colleagues.
Of course meditation helps me enormously. I use the free Insight timer app and I also have a paid app called Breethe.
Unless the weather is really bad, I go for a daily walk. Usually around an hour, sometimes less. Instead of listening to business podcasts like I usually do, I listened to Tara Brach. I can't wait for BrenƩ Brown's podcast 'Unlocking us' to start. Should be anytime soon.
I heard Depak Chopra say on an Instagram stream to say to ourselves 'joyful energetic body'. I'm not into affirmations (if you haven't already listen to the episode with Dana Wilde, sarahsantacroce.com/gbr27 that explains why). But I like the idea of reminding ourselves that our body and it's energy is important.
I caught myself craving chocolate or a glass of wine at night a few times this week, but then always convinced myself that now is definitely a good time to nurture my body with healthy food instead and not further burden my immune system with alcohol.
Yes, taking vitamin C and D helps as well, but not if we're eating chunk food and poisoning ourselves with substances.
In other words we need to take care of our minds and our bodies.
This week I skipped it, like I said, I was just really out of it, but I plan to start this routine again next week: the daily gratitude journal at night and I also like John Jantsch (Jants)'s new book the Self-Reliant Entrepreneur - 366 Daily Meditations to Feed Your Soul and Grow Your Business. Watch out for Episode number 31 in which I interview John.
So these are some of the things that I'm doing to stay grounded. It almost feels like now I have certainty that things will be uncertain. And I can just deal with it. Kind of like when you are sick and you don't know what kind of disease it is. It's a horrible feeling, because of the uncertainty. And then you find out and it's bad news, but at least you know and you can now deal with it.
That's how I feel. I can accept that this is just what it is right now. A difficult situation we are all facing. But at the same time from the little I know from Astrology it's exactly what belongs. It's a global crisis that hopefully teaches us something about living together, on this one world that we have. And it's also a message from nature, telling us that she will always prevail and that she has more power than any human being. She gives and she takes.
So despite the heaviness, I feel that we are in this together and we will get through it.
Now, it's unfortunately not just a health crisis. It's an economical crisis as well.
So that means that it might have a financial impact for some of us.
So it's time to think creatively and work on our resilience as entrepreneurs.
Because there are definitely ways in which business can continue, especially if we're using today's technology to connect with each other without having to meet.
In order to use our collective intelligence and creativity I'm hosting a Collective Resilience Brainstorming call next Tuesday, March 17th, at 10 am EST. It will happen on Zoom and as an intro I will share some of the mindfulness ideas I shared on this podcast, but then we'll also go into the doing. What can we DO during these times, to stay resilient, and to keep afloat as entrepreneurs? I will share some suggestions but then I invite everyone to chime in with theirs so that we use the hive mind to find solutions together.
I just created a very simple page where you can sign up to join us; www.sarahsantacroce.com/resilience
I'd love to see you there. And if you can't make it live, sign up anyways and I'll send out the replay.
Thanks for tuning in today. This is a raw bonus episode, no shownotes. So again the link to join us on Tuesday is http://www.sarahsantacroce.com/resilience
If you're listening on a mobile device you'll find the link in the description.
We can get through this together !
Hope to see you on March 17th