Check out Elephant’s Continually-updating Coronavirus Diary. ~ Waylon
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There’s a lot of talk about how it’s okay to feel sad and worried during these times.

How we’re still part of the conscious club even if we’re not enveloped in a sparkling cloud of love and light.

How we don’t have to use this time to come up with the new Facebook, or reach enlightenment by meditating away anxiety for hours at end.

And I agree.

We’re in the biggest global awakening humanity has ever encountered. We’re forced to face our biggest fears: fear of death, loneliness, and ourselves.

Fear of the unknown. Fear of losing loved ones.

It’s okay to feel sad.

But it’s also okay to feel happy.

There’s almost a sensation of guilt around feeling happy. How can we feel good, motivated, inspired when people are dying?

A duality mentality is formed: if you still feel good, you must be living in denial. You must be spiritually bypassing. Because no one who courageously faces their fears can feel good.

Spirituality means freedom from judgment. We’re all beautifully different, so also in how we process emotions; what looks like ostrichly (yes, it’s a word) avoiding pain to one person might be another person feeling it to heal it.

Spirituality means observing whatever goes on inside and accepting it.

The bad. The ugly. But also the good.

And most of the time, I feel so damn good.

Is that because I’m not personally affected by the pandemic? Do I lack empathy? Am I just living in denial?

I’m quarantined at a hostel in India. I’m staying in a dorm with no privacy. When the local health authorities came by and put a “quarantine” government stamp on my hand, I was so scared I cried. Don’t bring me to a quarantine facility (they didn’t). My parents are oceans and timezones away and are both in a high-risk group.

I’ve felt fear and anxiety. I’ve run out of excuses for avoiding certain things in my life because “I don’t have time.” I’ve also embraced that we can only feel an emotion for 90 seconds at its maximal intensity, which means that after facing fears follows freedom.

But this is not about me. It’s about us. About how we can live more from love and oneness instead of fear and separation.

We need it more than ever.

Let’s stay away from comparisons about who’s suffering the most.

Let’s stay away from dictating what feelings we’re allowed to feel.

Let’s stay away from unsolicited advice on what we should or should not achieve.

How come this topic is so dear to my heart? Rejecting joy kept me away from my true self—and making money—for such a long time.

Because my mind equalled happiness with starvation.

Why?

Traditionally, society says that you have to be serious to get rich. Put your ironed suit and stone-face on. Happiness and laughter are seen as silly, and who wants to hire a stupid person?

This is your permission to be all that you are in your life: smart, sexy, weird, and happy. Just as it’s okay to feel anxious and low.

Pandemic or not, if we postpone happiness out of guilt until everything in the world is perfect, we’ll postpone happiness forever. And if we invest our precious energy in dictating how others should feel, we’ll drain our immune systems.

Our time is now. We came to this planet at this pivotal point in time because we knew we could make it. Together. Through joy and dread and despair. Through hope and hell and happiness.

To bring humanity back where it belongs: in love.