How to Survive Storms, Pandemics, and, Well, Everything.

Contents show

Here we all are.

Global pandemic with no end in sight.

School, no school, or home school?

Working from home, not working, where will the money come from?

Racial injustice come-to-Jesus right now. Educating ourselves to step up best we can.

Inland hurricane. Trees down, roofs crashed, crops ruined. Lives upended here in Iowa.

And this is only part of the chaos and uncertainty in our lives, isn’t it? (Tell me about it—me too!)

It’s not the first time in history foundational structures (you know—roofs, barns, leadership, the economy, caste systems, our personal safety, to name just a few!) have come crashing down around us (and in us).

But it’s our turn now. How will we answer our call?

First—and this is so critical—we have to see all the events of the past year as a call. Not a series of random calamities, not bad luck, not cruel misfortune.

For all this, we grieve, suffer, and bellow out our frustration. As we must!

But then, rather than get fixed in our grief, suffering, and frustration, we answer our call. Because in the end, folks, healing our lives is in our own hands.

Where do we start?

We soothe and settle.

I breathe. I soften. I stay curious. I am not the chaos in my life. I am the observer. I am the healer. I trust myself to know what to do next.

We take necessary action.

I go to safety. I protect myself and those I love. I call in the help I need.

We take the very best care of ourselves and our bodies.

I nourish myself with good food. I rest and sleep. I connect with those I love and who love me. I move my beautiful body. I walk in Nature. And I continue to soothe and settle: I breathe, soften, and stay curious.

Finally, we do the next very best thing we can.

In this moment I do my best. In this moment I am present. In this moment I recall my power. In this moment I radiate my love into the world. In this moment I radiate my love to me. In this moment I stack the wood. In this moment I prepare the food. In this moment I do my next best thing (without judgment, blame, or shame).

This is how we survive storms, pandemics, and, well, everything.

How can I help you answer your call?

Resources

Karyn Shanks MD. Soothe and Settle. 2020.

Karyn Shanks MD. We are Unbroken. 2020.

Karyn Shanks MD. Our Call for a New Healing Paradigm. 2020.

Empower Your Healing Story Table of Contents

How to Empower Your Healing Story (A Manifesto)
Let's claim our healing stories. Let’s begin this healing journey. To claim our power and our wisdom to know what’s best, to own our bodies.
How to Empower Your Healing Story (What are Stories?)
If we didn't get stuck we'd all be healed, wouldn't we? Learn to recognize and let go of the disempowering stories that slam the brakes on your healing.
How to Empower Your Healing Story (By Reimagining These Five Stories)
Why can't we heal? Why can't we get unstuck? Learn to reimagine the 5 common stories that get in our way. You'll learn to tell-and live-a healing story.
How to Empower Your Healing Story (Lessons in Story Mining)
Learn to rewrite the stories that get in the way of your healing. Learn the tools, perspective changers, and a self-guided roadmap to set you free.
How to Empower Your Healing Story (Rewrite Your Failure Stories)
Learn to deconstruct the tyranical and disabling stories we tell ourselves about failure. Your failure stories will become stories of healing and freedom.
How to Empower Your Healing Story (Claim Your Emotional Genius)
We. Must. Feel. The stories we tell about our complicated emotions can block our healing. In this article, you'll learn to claim your emotional genius.
Born to Heal: Our Call for a New Healing Paradigm
We’ve got to write a new story of what the best healthcare is, what the best medicine is, and what it takes to live a healing life.
How to Become the Expert on You: Write Your Story of Healing
To become the expert on ourselves we must know who we are. This is our power. The first act of reclaiming this power is telling our story of becoming well.
Body-Soul Resilience
Every life challenge pushes us toward mastery over our circumstances.
How to Claim Healing as Your Own
Healing is ours. Our birthright. The primary urge of all nature. But we must claim it as our own. Our healing-our potential-rests squarely in our own hands.
How to Use Anxiety as the Empathic Wise Guide Within You
Anxiety is my guide, my inner wisdom, my genius! Anxiety contains wisdom we can all share, and action steps we can take to relieve the burden of it.
Unbroken
We’re not broken. We're … Complicated. Messy. Mean as hell. Heartbroken. Scared. Gorgeous. Amazing. And Beautiful. All these things. All at once.
Stay Curious
Learn the art of staying curious as a strategy managing uncertainty. Curiosity is the mother of intelligence and creative solutions.
What Makes Healing So Hard?
Reclaiming our agency and autonomy takes energy, paying attention, learning, action, and taking our power back from the experts we’ve asked to fix us.
Permission to Fail
I give you my full permission right now to make all those beautiful mistakes that aren’t really mistakes but just road signs showing you Your True Path.
How to Survive Storms, Pandemics, and, Well, Everything.
To heal, we have to see all the events of the past year as a call. Not a series of random calamities, not bad luck, not cruel misfortune.
Reclaim Joy
I want you to remember how joyful life can be. And how it’s possible to live both a hard life and a joyful one at the very same time.
Everyone’s Got Stories to Get Out of Their Way
Carrie healed by blasting through the tenacious energy of those old disempowering stories that kept her sick and suffering for five years.