{"id":806415,"date":"2020-04-15T10:40:06","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T16:40:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=381791"},"modified":"2020-04-15T10:40:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T16:40:06","slug":"lark-ascending-calming-the-mind-in-the-time-of-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/lark-ascending-calming-the-mind-in-the-time-of-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Lark Ascending: Calming the mind in the time of coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-1024x683.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/12\/Holbrook-Second-choice-Credit-Joe-Kusumoto-2048x1365.jpg 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"><figcaption><strong>Christina Holbrook<\/strong><br \/><em>Photo by Joe Kusumoto<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>As news about coronavirus flooded every media outlet in March and early April, my mind began to jump all over the place like a scared rabbit.<\/p>\n<p>One day, as predictions became increasingly dire, I pulled a book off my shelf, \u201cThe Yoga Sutras.\u201d The sutras are a series of aphorisms, or sayings, that are meant to help the reader explore their perceptions of reality and how these impact their responses to the world.<\/p>\n<p>The premise is that it is possible for each of us to achieve peace of mind in virtually any situation by mastering the way we think. One of the first yoga sutras is, \u201cYogas chitta vritti nirodha.\u201dOr\u201cHarnessing the power of the concentrated mind provides us with the means for restraining mental chatter so that we may see what is.\u201d&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Could this help me?&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"row\">\n<div class=\"col\">\n<div class=\"row sd-donation sd-donation-mobile p-0\">\n<div class=\"col-xl-4 p-2\">\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png)\" class=\"p-0 mt-2 mb-2 h-75 text-center rocket-lazyload\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/SDN-logo-white-1.png\" class=\"logo m-0 p-0 invisible\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div data-bg=\"url(https:\/\/cdn.summitdaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2020\/03\/sdn-banner-paypal.jpg)\" class=\"col-xl-8 p-3 text-center rocket-lazyload\">\n<h3 class=\"d-inline mr-3\">Support Local Journalism<\/h3>\n<p><button class=\"btn d-inline\" type=\"button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/donate\/?utm_source=article&amp;utm_medium=website&amp;utm_campaign=donation&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=mid-article\">Donate<\/a><\/button><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>In the midst of what was sounding like the end of the world, I sat down, took a deep breath and contemplated the idea of \u201charnessing the power of the concentrated mind.\u201d That is, I decided to be present in the moment. I shut off my computer. I took more deep breaths and brought my full awareness to my surroundings. Paying attention to what was actually going on in this moment helped. Somehow I felt calmer.<\/p>\n<p>I met a friend for a walk outdoors, both of us mindful of ample \u201csocial distancing.\u201d For that single hour, we turned our attention away from coronavirus and focused on each other\u2019s company. We both had recently seen \u201cThe Great Gatsby,\u201d and had fun pondering the literary question that might seem irrelevant in the midst of a pandemic but was somehow still fascinating: Why is it nearly impossible to convey, in real life, what Fitzgerald meant when he wrote that Daisy Buchanan\u2019s voice sounded like money? &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In the afternoon, I stood outside and watched the birds. With snow beginning to melt and temperatures warming, the chickadees were ignoring the birdfeeder and chasing one another instead. I heard a familiar soft whistle and looked up to see the first bluebird of the year in our neighborhood. Later, I called my siblings to see how everyone was doing and checked in with a friend living alone. Alan and I made another excellent dinner. Spending time at home has not only led to a very clean house but also some excellent meals.<\/p>\n<p>None of this changed the seriousness of the coronavirus outbreak. But what it did was allow me to calm the fearful chatter in my head and to approach the situation in a different way.<\/p>\n<p>First, although I had a strong attachment to the idea of certainty and wanted to know for certain just how bad things would get, there really was no definitive way of knowing. And therefore my incessant checking for updates to the Johns Hopkins coronavirus map, for example, or the Colorado COVID-19 case summaries page could not provide certainty but instead just increased the anxious chatter in my head.<\/p>\n<p>Second, people died unexpectedly every day. Lots of people. My belief that somehow, if I had all the facts, I could prevent myself and those I love from ever being one of those people was false and had always been false. It didn\u2019t exactly make me happy to recognize this, but it made me feel steadier to understand that it was true. Frantically checking the internet was not going to change this reality.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, good information was available from reliable sources about the potential spread of the virus, how lethal it might be, and steps that each of us could take to make ourselves and our communities safer. And while I couldn\u2019t control everything, there were simple things that were effective that I could do: wash my hands, wear a mask, and for the time meet friends for \u201cvirtual happy hour\u201d rather than actual happy hour.<\/p>\n<p>It is also within my power to recognize the beauty around me and to be grateful for each day I am alive.<\/p>\n<p>And there are signs of hope. People across the globe are working together to share information, to try to help one another. Locally, stories are multiplying daily \u2014 and are being shared by Building Hope through #HopeBuildersCO \u2014 about all the small ways in which our neighbors are reaching out to care for one another. Maybe we are beginning to see more clearly how our actions ripple outward and that we are all responsible for each other and for all living things.<\/p>\n<p><em>Christina Holbrook\u2019s column \u201cLark Ascending\u201d publishes biweekly in the Summit Daily News. Holbrook writes about life in the mountains, from the beauty of the natural surroundings to the quirkiness of friends and neighbors to what makes a good life. She moved to Breckenridge in 2014 and is the author of \u201cWinelands of Colorado.\u201d Contact her at <\/em><a href=\"mailto:peak1studio@gmail.com\"><em><a href=\"mailto:peak1studio@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">peak1studio@gmail.com<\/a><i class=\"fas fa-external-link-alt\"><\/i><\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/opinion\/lark-ascending-calming-the-mind-in-the-time-of-coronavirus\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Christina HolbrookPhoto by Joe Kusumoto As news about coronavirus flooded every media outlet in March and early April, my mind began to jump all over the place like a scared rabbit. One day, as predictions became increasingly dire, I pulled a book off my shelf, \u201cThe Yoga Sutras.\u201d The sutras are a series of aphorisms, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-806415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-14 01:32:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806415\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}