How to Prepare Your Mind Before Crisis Hits (Most Replayed Personal Development Wisdom Snippets) | #599

[Agi Keramidas]
Welcome to Personal Development Mastery Podcast and this is another snippet of wisdom where I select my favourite most insightful moments from previous episodes. Let's dive right in.

[Cristina Leira]
Mental health, well there is one thing that we don't talk much and that is mental health. We all want to be, especially now with the digital world, right? We all want to look good, we want to say, oh we are doing great.

The truth is that there is a disconnect between what we see and what we really are going through. So the mental health is about also how we regulate our emotions and I have conducted a lot of research on that, how the use of spiritual practices helps us learn to regulate better our emotions. Now, interestingly enough, when we are in times of calmness, right, it's very easy to say, oh yes, the only thing you have to do is breathe in, breathe out and then meditate, go within, beautiful.

The thing that happens when we are going through an anxiety moment or a crisis, it's different. So there you don't have time to say, well I know I have to breathe in, breathe out, because if you try to do that you will do that, right? So it's like a bank account.

We need to put more in the account before we need it, so that when we need to withdraw, we already have it there. So we need to create the practice of building what works for us. What works for us, so that when we are going through a critical moment, we just go there and practice.

And that is why we need to practice whatever works for us, right? To some people meditation works, other contemplation. And in my study, I studied religious symbols and I found that each of the symbols that I analyzed, they had these bodily sensations that help to connect within in different ways.

So for example, incense. You say incense, well yes, incense, because when you breathe in, it just goes directly to your neural system as well. But what is the symbology behind incense?

So you see, everything is, nothing is separate. It's an impossibility that things are separate. It's an illusion.

It's so interconnected that for example, incense through the sense of the smell, or sacred bells through the sense of the sound, or sacred music, or touching the rosary, for example, or touching the mandala in the Indian faith. But if you go to Latin America, of course, from Argentina, when you go to the church, you see a lot of people touching the image. And they just touch, they touch the feet of the saint or the feet of Jesus.

They even kiss it. Because it is a bodily sensation. All that, all that helps to mindfulness intervention that benefits us spiritually, mentally, emotionally.

And it has to be done prior to the crisis. If we like, now that doesn't mean that, okay, okay, I haven't done it. And I'm going through crisis.

I don't have any options. No, thank God. Thank God.

And I do believe in God. And I like saying thank God. Thank God, we do have options.

Because we, it isn't like you only have one chance in your life. And if you miss it, you're doomed. No, you haven't done it.

You don't have, you know, the practice built there. And you can learn in times of distress, which is what happened to me. I was not using it before.

But then I said, okay, I have option A, I die, because you can die of a heart attack when you're going through extreme stress. And I went through that. Or option B, do something about it.

And I did something about it. Now, it's much better to start ahead of time, so that when the crisis comes, you're better off than where I started, which I had to start from zero, I had to read about it. And I couldn't concentrate because I was so nervous.

I didn't feel like reading, but I was like, Christina, read, calm down, meditate. And I was thinking, but how can I meditate when I have to do this and this. So if I humbly can suggest to whoever is listening to this and can feel served with this message is start before.

Start before the moment of crisis, building your own account of what works for you. And for that, you have to do soul search. You see, sometimes what works for you doesn't work for me.

So sometimes meditation may not work for you. But going for a walk in the beach may. Or just sitting with your back against a tree may.

Or just listening, I don't know, to some classical music may. Or maybe even be listening to, you know, other type of music. Whatever works for you.

Build that so that when you go through darkness, and Aggie, we all go through darkness. We all go. It's what we do about it.

Or how long we stay there. That's the only difference. So I only always say, make no mistake.

Everybody, everybody, Mother Teresa, Jesus, everybody. And like in the Kabbalah, you know, like all different because I want to just mention one religion over the other. No.

In all religions, we all humans go through that. It's the moon, right? The dark side and the light.

It's how long we stay in the dark what makes the difference.

[Agi Keramidas]
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