About Mental Health Mondays - Sustaining Life in a Pandemic
A new regular rhythm The Refuge started the first week of the Covid-19 shut down is weekly "Mental Health Monday" interviews. As we're buckling in for the long haul together it's good to think through what will sustain us in this wild new season. Each video/podcast will be a short reflection with some therapist friends connected to our community along with questions to consider on our own or to bring into the circles of support we're starting to create and hopefully talk about together--with a friend, in families, online groups, on Facebook or any other creative ways.
Sustaining Life in a Pandemic -- What do we do when surge capacity runs out?
Mental Health Monthly - Sustaining Life in a Pandemic
October 12, 2020
After two full seasons of weekly reflections and 7 months into the pandemic we are trying out doing a monthly interview, reflection and discussion instead, This month our friend Phyllis Mathis is back to share with our community about surge capacity and what we do when it runs out.
Questions for reflection and discussion:
· How does it feel to hear this sentence from Phyllis, “Nobody knows better than anyone else, and we’re all in this together”?
· In ambiguity the anxious mind goes nuts with what ifs. There may be real threats, but often they are not actually imminent. What are some of the things you are nervous about that haven’t happened yet that you tend to fixate on?
· What helps you get out of your head and settle into being fully present in a moment?
· Spend some time with this thought: “We have to have courage and trust that just because we’re out of ideas doesn’t mean that there isn’t another wave of goodness that will move through us into the next phase that we’re going to be in. It’s just not going to tell your brain ahead of time.”
24 Aug 2020
Mental Health Mondays - Sustaining Life in a Pandemic - Enneagram Riff
This week Kathy Escobar and Joanna Douglas Rainey chat about the Enneagram and how each number might find some ways to sustain mental health during the pandemic.
Watch on YouTube (https://youtu.be/Ho39QZPtiCA)
We'd love to hear your feedback! What resonated for you?
18 Aug 2020
Mental Health Mondays - Sustaining Life in a Pandemic - S2 Episode 8
This week join us for a conversation with Kay Bruner, therapist and new friend of the Refuge as we talk about what hope means when things don’t work out.
Watch on YouTube (https://youtu.be/6CiNHLXOA7M)
Questions for reflection and discussion:
· What comes up for you when you hear the word “hope”? Has your understanding of what this word means shifted over time?
· We often hear the message that hope means it will all work out in the end. Have you heard this definition of hope? What do you do when this doesn’t match with reality in your life or in the lives of people you care about?
· Kay defines spiritual bypassing as, “Something said or done (often in religious language) to try to make you feel better in the face of something that actually can’t be made better.” Is the concept of ‘spiritual bypassing’ new to you? Have you ever done this to people? Why did you find yourself saying those things? Has anyone done this to you? How did this feel?
· It’s hard to sit in the discomfort of things that cannot be made better.
· Our privilege has protected us from many things, but it may have stunted us as well. Can you see ways that that this has been the case in your life? What are some of the things you’ve been protected from that may have made this moment more difficult?
· Kay says that “grief breaks all of your boxes” – What paradigms have been broken for you in this pandemic?
· Kathy talks about how we hate being human and owning the human experience that involves pain and glory and goodness and suffering. Do you resist your humanness? What would it look like to accept that beauty and devastation can exist at the same time?
· Getting outside to beautiful spaces can help us get out of what Kay describes as the “human disaster space” – Take some time this week to go outside, notice something beautiful, and remind yourself that there is a whole big planet that
· Jo talked about “not giving up meeting together” and how it’s hard when we form habits and scary when there is a risk, but how we need to meet in order to sustain our lives together. Have you noticed any resistance to meeting with people again? How can you exercise your agency to engage in shared spaces in ways that feel safe?
· List out the people in your life that you are “in this together” with. Reflect on these relationships and how they add to a rooted sense of hope in your life.
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