For some in the community, coping with coronavirus has brought up a waterfall of emotions. Frustration, fear, anger, defiance, suspicion and outright obstinance. Like Samantha’s contentious response.
She wouldn’t do it. She just resisted and stubbornly said, “No, over my dead body”.
It’s fascinating the words when we’re triggered. When uncertainty hits and we just want to put up a wall.
Over my dead body isn’t far from the truth for this lady. Covid-19 regrettably provides that option. Let’s call her Samantha. It could also be a guy Sam, but let’s stick to one person for this one.
Having to wear a mask was an affront. An unreasonable request. It brought her anxiety, potentially even trauma.
As a psychologist, I could look at the complex psychology of this anxious reaction and give it a few technical names.
Many psychological defences could be at play and they’d be quite legitimate in light of coping with coronavirus.
Samantha’s strong, defensive reactions would need psychological development or support so she could cope more easily. Not be so affronted. Not be so stressed out or traumatized.
In the context of our current pandemic, the covid-19 or coronavirus pandemic that has partially taken over our 2020, Samantha’s reaction is being met with many other reactions in our community.
“She’s so selfish”
“What a stubborn woman, she should get over herself”
“What’s with the drama and tantrum, doesn’t she realize there’s a pandemic going on?”
“What is she so upset about? It’s only a mask, it’s only for a short period of time”
All valid comments. They also take only one perspective though. The perspective of someone who hasn’t been triggered on an energetic level.
Coping with coronavirus happens on multiple levels
It seems Samantha is having trouble seeing the context of the current pandemic. Or a self-help measure, such as wearing a mask, meeting personal and community needs. For everyone coping with coronavirus.
Even if she can see the context, on a personal or community level, she’s refusing to be told what to do. What’s going on there? What’s with the “rebellious” reaction?
We can chat with Samantha, or post a bunch of messages, till we’re blue in the face. Explain to her the developing need over these months for the practical use of a mask. But it’s still hitting an inner wall for her.
We can pound our wrists or up-the-anti on those social media posts, “reminding her” that what was at first a request in parts of Australia is now a mandatory requirement in Victoria.
Emphatically “help her see” that exponentially growing numbers of people with coronavirus have spiked enough concern for us to do something we may not be initially comfortable to do. Wear a mask.
All this has only triggered Samantha even more. Especially with the chastising she’s receiving from various sources online and offline.
A usually reasonable and capable woman, she’s been rendered into a seemingly obstinate, stubborn, selfish person.
Why?
How to make sense of this negative reaction during covid-19
Why is she reacting this way? So vehemently pushing back?
Verbally outraged or even silently resisting as she goes to the grocery store without a mask.
She’d rather endure the negative glances from people around her wondering why she’s not doing what everybody’s been asked to.
She’d rather deal with being verbally insulted and chastised than be considered collaborative in the community.
If she were to see a psychologist to manage any anxiety or frustration she’s facing in coping with coronavirus (and the pressure of social requests), she could develop a variety of skills and coping mechanisms.
They’d help her too. They may not be long term sustainable shifts but in the short term, it would potentially meet everyone’s needs, including her own.
However short-term psychological shifts may not be doing her justice quite frankly. In light of Rooftop’s distinct approach to leadership psychology, her full-on emotional reaction goes much deeper than that.
What indicates it goes deeper than her psychology layer?
Her first signal is she will still go out into public places without wearing a mask. She’s not concerned at minimising infection for her own health management.
Her second signal is she is not concerned to alter her routine about any chastisement for not wearing a mask.
They are easy signals to overlook given how simple and “in your face” (pardon the pun) these behaviours are.
The good news is that by going deeper than psychological-level dynamics, it doesn’t gets harder to understand. It becomes simpler because the distinct energetics feeding those psychological defences have come to the surface through those clear signals. We can get to the root cause more directly and uncover her vehement “no” reaction toward coping with coronavirus.
Digging into the soul-level energetics of this kind of behaviour becomes much more useful and effective. Psychological defences and maladaptive coping mechanisms are one level that can be helped.
But for what Samantha is demonstrating, she needs support to shift a deeper fear that’s now come to light.
Before making some sense of these negative reactions to coronavirus, a quick note.
I’m mindful not to paint Samantha in a way that makes her “wrong”.
It’s still democratic and healthy to be discerning and question authorities asking us to do something that’s SO out of our norm. We’re not a society that normally has to wear masks, keep physical distance from each other, contend with lockdowns, businesses having to close and something as incredible as a curfew.
After six months of accumulating epidemiological data, we’re more aware that covid-19 is quite infectious because of exponential increases in infection rates overnight. That’s unusual. It’s got our attention.
I am highlighting that Samantha’s situation still needs some support and help because on the whole, even our democratic government and society is in the same storm, managing it in their leadership way. We all have a very clear common goal –flatten the curve of infection. Remove the immediate threat of coronavirus.
So let’s not demonize Samantha (or Sam) who needs a little more time than others might need, to work through a more deep seated fear and frustration. That’s not a cop out to anyone either, more on that later!
Let’s face it, everyone in our immediate community is also dealing with the ongoing uncertainty and destabilization of coping with coronavirus. Everyone’s dealing with their own anxieties, concerns, fears and irritations around the virus and the ripple effect it’s had on business, family interactions, socializing and more.
Everyone is trying to manage with a very real societal challenge.
The time and space to REALLY dig into what’s potentially happening with Samantha isn’t available. But I don’t believe that to be true. The triggers are a blessing in disguise for Samantha.
I’m glad you’re reading this too. You’re among many trying to consciously navigate these frustrating uncertainties. And jJust at the moment you feel some sort of stability and safety, the goal posts shift. It’s naturally frustrating.
What’s going on with Samantha to show she’s not coping with coronavirus?
Acknowledging that anything medical must be prioritized here given this is a physical virus, this article will go on to unfolding the mental health and motivational aspects affecting Samantha.
What do I mean then when I say that digging into the soul level energetics is more helpful for Samantha? Let’s start with the psychological level so we have a springboard to understand the soul level.
Psychologically speaking, in the context of a worldwide pandemic affecting communities in many places, Samantha’s reaction could be a natural response to an anxiety-provoking reality. However, the refusal to action something that could realistically decrease her risk of getting ill, such as not wearing a mask, could be seen as maladaptive coping.
It’s maladaptive simply because Samantha is increasing her risk of becoming infected. This risk didn’t occur overnight to warrant an unrealistically quick adjustment to new behaviour. It’s come up after 4-5 months of accumulating experience on the world stage, showing the pandemic hasn’t become a distant occurrence yet.
Let’s stick to a person’s personal sphere for the moment. In the past, the outbreak of the HIV virus needed clear exchange of bodily fluids through a more involved process like sexual intercourse. Whereas we’ve learnt that covid-19 only need droplets that come out of our mouth and nose. It seems to transmit and infect a bit easier in our common day to day activity.
If we now consider Samantha in both her personal and social sphere, Samantha’s reaction and behaviour could be considered maladaptive because it’s increasing the risk of droplet exchange with people around her.
With initial measures slowing down the rate of infection but not stopping exponential infection rates, Samantha’s resistance to take the next level of personal protection gives us insight into how emotionally blocked she is. She can’t see her own part in the whole context and how she’s not coping with coronavirus.
It’s all too easy to get angry at that but it’s also important to open up some consideration that there’s an internal struggle going on.
We’re not here to talk about the virus and its characteristics. Its context is being provided so we understand the psychological consequences that we’re observing in Samantha.
The consequences that Samantha looks like she’s being selfish, inconsiderate or a drama queen.
Psychologically, her fear and uncertainty in this whole situation has brought surface behaviours that appear to be stubborn, resistant and unhealthy.
To some extent, they are stubborn and resistant. But not just because Samantha wants to be trouble. For some reason, Samantha can’t see herself in a larger context.
Something is blocking her psychological coping to be able to recognize a few key pieces of information:
- We’re in a worldwide pandemic and it’s reached our community doorstep
- We’ve tried to only use social distancing and minimal community contact to date. It helped somewhat but something spiked the numbers again, so the next level of consideration is now needed to manage this situation
- We’re inundated with social media and news reports of so many “facts”, details, stupidities, “breaking news”, helpful insights and conspiracy theories. It’s overload on any normal day. Not to mention the government having to take unusual, drastic measures so mass numbers of people are on the same page for us to beat this thing, together.
- Samantha’s been whirled into a “hurricane” with little warning and against her will (like everyone else) and that in itself was already hard for Samantha to handle. Now she’s being asked to cover her face.
No. She’s put her foot down on that one.
She’s throwing a tantrum like a child being told to finish their dinner before being able to have dessert. That’s not to insult Samantha (or Sam) but it’s a parallel situation to help visualize what’s happening in the deeper recesses of her psychological coping. Or more so NOT coping given the overall context we’re dealing with.
If Samantha were doing all these behaviours and emotional storms in the ABSENCE of a pandemic, we’d be having another kind of conversation and evaluation.
Deeper energetics sparked off when coping with coronavirus
The soul level energetics. The dynamics on a much deeper level,. They’re caught up in the collective consciousness that Samantha shares with her community at large.
Our personal consciousness (subconscious and unconscious) is a fluid, dynamic, energetic collection of ‘rivers’ that flow into and with the ‘ocean’ of collective consciousness.
Psychology legend Carl Jung’s theories on our personal and collective consciousness continue to be the juicy part of psychology degree curriculums. Even juicier is his own intuitive analysis in his book published posthumously, The Red Book.
Samantha has been triggered on THIS LEVEL.
The river of her personal consciousness, right at the mouth of the vast ocean of collective consciousness has overwhelmed her. So much that her limit has been reached in being asked (or mandated now in Victoria) to wear a mask.
How’s this different to coping with coronavirus on the psychological level?
Here we enter into the longer-term perspective of our energetics, our soul level longevity. Past lives. Whether you believe in past lives or not actually doesn’t impact what we’re talking about here.
As Einstein taught us, energy cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed. So, the soul level longevity of Samantha’s energetics has now been triggered and the ocean currents and waves are smashing her psyche around, pushing her under the waves.
She’s gasping for air (metaphorically speaking, hopefully never literally given the covid-19 symptoms) and when she “comes up for air”, she’s pushing back and arguing with everyone that she “will not wear a mask”.
Samantha’s deeper “ocean” consciousness has been triggered. From a soul level, we could hypothesize that one of the toxic rivers of her soul level longevity, a past life, has been reactivated. It’s flooding her current personal consciousness. In her here and now. It doesn’t seem to make sense, to her or anyone observing.
But in the recesses of her personal consciousness it makes complete sense because the negative karmic pattern (energetic) has been unleashed. Her day to day thoughts have become confused and her emotional system overwhelmed. She has to protect herself at all costs for some reason by NOT wearing a mask.
She’s not necessarily aware of this trigger. Nor would she be aware of the origin of that deeper river, the energetic flare up. But it’s not so deep in her unconscious anymore.
Given her behaviours, it’s come closer to her personal conscious level and she’s physically and psychologically fighting it.
What she IS conscious about is that she’s dead against being told what to do. Or it could be she’s dead against having to cover her face.
It could also be she’s quite intent on opposing authority, even if they told her she only had to wear glasses to protect her eyes and not a mask.
She doesn’t know WHY or HOW to overcome it for some peace of mind. Specifically reading her Akashic record will give the detailed answer to understand the specific ‘why’ that then informs the ‘how’.
For any or all of those scenarios, an old karmic pattern has been re-activated and the energetic pattern it’s holding is negatively affecting Samantha. That’s why they’re called karmic patterns.
I specifically call them negating karmic patterns because they block a person from having personal control. To have a clear head and feel more resilient. The negating karmic pattern clouds their head and they’re emotionally ready to snap.
Especially when emotions become VERY sharp and thoughts become so heavy. It’s exhausting.
What are examples of energetic blocks being triggered?
Many of my clients have had other “unusual” or unexplainable sensations that relate to past life negative karmic patterns. I’ll come back to how “out there” they sound in a sec!
First example, someone who feels very uncomfortable with high neck sweaters. They feel like they’re suffocating. Turns out they were a Nun in a past life with an overly tight Nun’s habit collar near choking her. The Mother Superior was an abusive so and so, didn’t care and the Nun had ongoing trauma as a result.
Or another client who would get panicky when walking in National Parks with very tall trees and piles of leaves. Why such angst in a beautiful place? Turns out they had a past life where they were in forest battles and the enemy sprung out from leafy mound hideouts and ambushed them to their death.
How about the client who finds it difficult to have any tight-fitting gloves on their hands or fitted clothes touching their back, because in a past life they had one too many hand and back lashings from corporal punishment.
They may sound like stories and tales that are bit “out there”. But when you consider our human history and how violent and uncivilized we were for centuries, we as a civilization LIVED in very “out there” ways.
Young boys were sold and bartered to be trained as ‘devout’ soldiers and killers.
Women were literally burned at the stake (ultra-sensitive feet anyone?).
Slaves were a norm no matter what your race, as long as you served the elite.
Swords and maces were the weapon of choice for goodness sake.
Are these past-life stories really that “out-there”? Our own communities and ‘civilizations’ actually lived these lives in the last few 100 years.
That was how humans used to relate. That created a lot of trauma. Thank goodness it’s far back in history now but we’re still talking as close as 1000 or so years ago.
Samantha’s trigger may have it’s own spiritual meaning
Samantha’s internal emotional system has been triggered by some ‘out-there’ event that seems to have little place in today’s situation. But it’s incredibly vivid and real in her conscious energy right now.
Samantha may have been a Celtic soldier in battle who had to wear a heavy iron helmet in battle. A helmet that may have been pelted in with a sword, it got stuck and couldn’t come off, leaving the Celtic soldier to die from suffocation. So now, having her face covered resembles that too much.
Remember, we’re talking energy that got stuck in the flow of her consciousness circuit. It’s such a significant challenge for her she wouldn’t even enjoy a gorgeous facial with a warm face-washer gently put on her face. She’d throw the face-washer back at the surprised masseuse!
Here’s another possibility that’s come up. Samantha may have been in a rigid and stern social caste system in a particular lifetime with authoritarian parents who told her what to wear, who to see and what to say (think of Rose in the movie Titanic!).
Her parents forced her to marry into a convenient political marriage with someone she absolutely despised.
Her life was a living hell every day. She couldn’t fight the authoritarian hold her parents and society had on her. She was psychologically ‘suffocated’ every day and in everything she did.
She doesn’t take well to being told what to do now. The energy is too similar to the ‘suffocation’ of that past life. She couldn’t be herself.
Here’s another ‘fun’ possibility to consider.
Samantha may have been a seasoned criminal in some past life and got great pleasure out of it. She defied authority and got a kick out of it while stealing money and assets along the way.
Her growing wealth gave her remarkable negotiating power no matter what village or town she entered. It meant she was free and foot loose to go wherever she wanted at the drop of a hat.
Anyone challenging her to ‘follow the rules’ these days may meet with the cheeky criminal who mostly benefited from resisting authority. Someone who got many welcome adrenaline rushes by flouting authority.
Heck, any mafia members in any number of countries these days may have had a similar past life or be triggered in a similar way!
Whichever historical trigger it may be, it’s negating energetic pattern formed a habit at that time and it’s now become a problematic energetic loop. Triggered and activated in this lifetime. They are the negating karmic patterns that get cleared in the principal soul session.
Being triggered in your gut makes coping with covid-19 harder
A large societal event, like a pandemic, can trigger these kinds of internal, traumatic events. It’s been lying asleep all this time because there was nothing of great magnitude to trigger it. A smaller life event or personal trauma may have also triggered it somehow, but it may not have been so potent or obvious as it is now.
Have you ever seen someone who just reacts so irrationally or in puzzling ways? Despite having had some reasonable conversations or thinking you were on the same page, something just “snapped” and went off course? It left you mystified. The various responses around the globe of people coping with coronavirus have certainly shown us a few examples of that.
There’s a chance that Samantha (or Sam) has met with such distress and strain during this pandemic time that the mask has become the “straw that broke the camel’s back”. Despite it not being mandatory or even recommended for months before hand. That piece of context doesn’t seem to matter.
It matters now that it’s mandatory AND if she’s not wearing it, she’s further triggered by being called up on it from various angles. Each time further aggravating her defences or rocking the boat she’s JUST staying afloat in. Her inner storm becomes more difficult.
It’d be great if we could simply say, “just wear the mask, it’s helping your fellow community member, what’s the big deal?”. It’s certainly true and reasonable in the current context of trying to flatten the curve or curtail the spread of an active virus doing the rounds.
Regrettably it’s not that easy for Samantha whose present moment has become overrun and overwhelmed by an energetic block that’s from another timeline and now come to the surface.
The pent-up energy that was once manageable, also a lot more subtle in her day to day experience that she could work around it, is now literally in her face.
Her personal life has been significantly imposed on by a social circumstance. Except her energetic history has a different relationship with what’s happening right now.
It’s a traumatic one, a significant internal storm. It’s hard to see past it and to reason on the level that someone without this energetic history would easily do.
Finding meaning can make coping with coronavirus easier
Does this mean that Samantha’s refusal to wear a mask is justified? That we need to have more sympathy or leeway for her because there’s a traumatic history hindering her coping with coronavirus? Not at all.
At some stage, this negative karmic pattern would have needed to be resolved. One experience or another would have triggered Samantha. It may not have been as publicly obvious as it is thanks to covid-19, community lockdowns and an Australian city calling a state of disaster. Now it’s super obvious.
It’s not only in her face personally, it’s in her face socially and nationally. Triple whammy.
As some stage this dormant energetic block ‘hidden’ in her personal consciousness would have awoken. She would have to have dealt with it to make her life easier in the long run. Or she may have chosen to stay in the discomfort. Either choice is a reality when we’re kindly challenged with these sorts of triggers.
I reviewed 100s of papers as part of my PhD in epigenetics and they said the same thing. A variety of environmental events could trigger dormant genes, dormant vulnerabilities and any symptoms those genes/vulnerabilities hold.
It actually didn’t matter what the environmental event was. It’s initially a trigger. That serves enough of a purpose by itself.
The trigger itself may need fixing (such as the physical side of covid-19) or it could just as easily become redundant after it’s done its job as a trigger. The vulnerability, such as coping with coronavirus, then becomes the priority to manage.
For example, with covid-19 as an environmental and physical trigger, it first and foremost needs medical attention because it’s manifesting at the physical level of our body. It affects our physical body. You start there if it becomes a physical reality for you.
While attending to responsible medical management, it simultaneously needs someone to look after their mental health and cope as positively as possible. Ultimately come out better because of it.
We’ve dived deep into that psychological space, into the recesses of our personal and collective consciousness. The soul-level space of consciousness that holds our motivational energy. The energetic drive behind our psychological thoughts and feelings. My previous blogs have gone into this in far more depth.
The energetic patterns are naturally inside our soul level blueprint, it’s how we’re designed as individuals.
The negating karmic patterns are short circuits in the energy blueprint.
That’s the part of the law of attraction they don’t talk about that much. It’s not as sexy!
That energy block was created in Samantha’s personal consciousness and she’s the only one who can transform it.
We get to the energetic short circuit by bringing the karmic pattern to conscious awareness. When she can label it and understand where it came from, Samantha’s probability of fixing the problematic energetic loop is very high.
Unfortunately for Samantha, the activation of her negating karmic pattern has become quite obvious at a very inconvenient time. Her distress in coping with coronavirus is not something she can keep private in the current climate. Her actions DO affect others very directly. And the “others” are letting her know, frequently.
Finding spiritual meaning adds another positive layer when coping with coronavirus
The Samantha’s (or Sam’s) of our community have become very loud, distressed and seemingly obstinate in our current social climate of a health pandemic.
Reading so many reports of how many people rebelled against wearing a mask (or even social distancing) for very clear health reasons and generally short-term periods of time, really had me reflect on how much trouble some people were having coping with coronavirus.
Like many others, I was initially saddened by their apparent selfishness. I initially also had that sense of frustration to “just do the right thing” because of the urgency that covid-19 has pressured us with.
But I also recognized the incredibly vehement energy behind their reactions and behaviours. I’ve seen that many times before in my consulting. We’ve managed these difficulties, distresses and traumas before. It’s not as easy as “just do the right thing and wear a mask”.
I’m not condoning the behaviour either. I just encourage anyone seeing a Samantha or Sam behave in what seem to be unreasonable ways during this stressful time, to consider what may have been triggered or activated more deeply in them.
It won’t apply to everyone behaving in such vehement and inconsiderate ways. No copouts or dodgy rationalizations are accepted either.
Samantha or Sam still need to DO something about it as they’re putting themselves at risk and putting others at risk as a result.
They wouldn’t get away with driving recklessly before the consequences of an accident with another car or pedestrian caught up with them.
They are sincerely distressed and overwhelmed. In a way that overrides their usual ability to reason. It needs attention and readjustment for more positive coping with coronavirus.
Well done helping yourself cope better with covid-19
If you’ve come across this article, I trust there is someone you can pass this on to because it will likely give them some relief.
You’re a conduit for those on the edge-of-ready to deal with these surges of emotion and confused thoughts. The Principal Soul Session can help address this.
It may seem convenient for me to say but this article is not about how to cope with the reasonable stress or overwhelm many people are experiencing with the covid-19 pandemic. Although your energetics are always speaking to you somehow. They’re part of your intuitive sixth sense.
This article is specifically for those having such distressing, overwhelming and triggered responses that are disproportionate to the kind of stress one would naturally feel at a time like this.
Usually reasonable and grounded people can be unusually affected.
It’s comforting and liberating to know that information from our personal akashic record can help resolve deep seated patterns people have had trouble shaking off. No matter what they’ve tried.
They’ve progressed it in small ways and good on them. They’re important stepping-stones. But they couldn’t dissolve the root problem and be freed of it completely.
That’s because the heaviness and overwhelm is ‘trapped’ in their energetic blueprint. It needs the next level of information and supported insight, to get to the core of where the distress is frozen.
After months of lockdown and self-isolation myself, I’ve been lucky to have minimal distress and good energy to support others.
It’s also enabled space for me to tune in to the deeper meaning of what this pandemic is truly about for us on a community level. There are many questions I’ve come to grip with.
I appreciate many others haven’t had that kind of space and hope that this article and soul session information can bring them some relief and hope.
Coping with coronavirus includes finding spiritual meaning in managing natural uncertainties
Such uncertain times are typically disorienting and exhausting to say the least. You’re thrown out of your usual routine and forced to reconsider how to do life. Even how you relate to yourself. It can be confusing and scary at the best of times.
When a global situation hits, like a pandemic, it takes us to a whole new level. Considering our global community last had to think on this level over 100 years, it takes a moment to find which direction you’re facing let alone what steps to take forward.
It’s okay to be disoriented and confused as long as you instil some sort of basic routine in your day to day while the “world goes mad”, so to speak!
Harvard Business Review shared a good article on a psychological level coping. Namely the grieving element of situational anxiety in coping with coronavirus.
Beyond that, when your emotions are triggered so deeply and it’s one wave after another crashing on your head, consider that something deeper has been activated in your energetics.
We are such multi-layered beings. We have conscious thoughts and a vivid life.
Distressing times such as covid-19 put us in a pressurized incubator in order to break out of our old cocoon.
I trust this article has brought to light a deeper perspective on those sharp, vehement emotions and overwhelming thoughts that someone like Samantha (or Sam) have been demonstrating.
Their more deep-seated negating karmic pattern which has triggered such resistance, push-back, heaviness and confusion are now ready to be resolved in their today. And become a part of a history they can look back on with freer thinking and steady emotions instead.
If you’re feeling stuck and you want a DIY exercise, have a read of my last blog “Feeling stuck? Get back on track as your distinct leader”.
Onward and upward,
Elizabeth Celi
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