what does the post-pandemic world look like to you?

I heard somewhere, sometime ago, that following a world pandemic where the majority of people are gripped by fear for their lives (and the lives of those near and dear to them) that after the pandemic ends, another pandemic begins and that is the uprising of conspiracy theories.

It seems that living in fear for a few years gets quickly imprinted on our nature and when we’re given the all-clear, many of us continue to believe that we should remain in a place of fear and, so, buy into the conspiracy theories that may begin to circle around them.

For some of you reading this you might laugh and think that ridiculous and an unbelievable scenario. For others you might stop and think about friends or family who you know may have bought into such theories (I, for one, can put my hand up to this one). And for others you may (or may not yet) realise that you’ve unwittingly been letting these theories penetrate your own life.

From the obliteration of money (as we know it), to planned famines designed to wipe out most of the human race, to purposely releasing pollutants into the air as we sleep… you name it, I’ve heard about it and, sadly, I’ve watched people near and dear to me be consumed by such theories.

And when asked why they listen to them, follow them, act on them, and make radical changes to their life as a result of them, the response tends to be “I just want my family to be safe.” In other words, having been steeped in fear for the last few years due to the recent covid pandemic, that’s their new normal. And to simply let the overwhelming fear they experienced drop, they feed it (unwittingly) even more by opening up to theories designed to feed that fear further.

Why share such doom and gloom? Why (possibly) knock you down further when you’re already feeling pretty low?

Well, because if this is the new normal for so many people after living only a couple of years in fear, what do you think your normal looks like after being exposed to fear (albeit in a more subtle manner) for most of your life?

Because fear is what we’ve all been taught from childhood.

Even though our parents, caregivers, teachers, and adults around us wanted to help us navigate the world successfully and (hopefully) taught us from a place of love, they also emphasised the importance of such teachings from a standpoint of fear – don’t talk to strangers (they could hurt or kidnap you), don’t climb that tree (you could fall and painfully break a bone), always walk home with your sibling (because if you walk alone you’re making yourself vulnerable)… and so on.

Even as adults, through the media, company marketing, governments and country/world leaders the messages and news that is shared always tends to come from a place of fear. Think about it, how often is the primary news story of the day an uplifting, positive one? You could say never, right?

When we’re surrounded by an atmosphere day in day out, it soon becomes our normal. As humans our natural tendency is to blend in rather than to stand out. Because when we stand out from the crowd it tends to attract attention, and often ridicule and, quite frankly, it’s an uncomfortable place to be. And so, we mostly blend in. Unfortunately, blending in and being like everyone else also means mostly living with a negative mindset, listening to negative self-talk, believing in (and indeed being attracted to) negative news.

And even when we reach the stage where we know and see the negativity and fear that is surrounding us and consuming us each day, after having existed in such a realm for years and decades, it can become quite challenging to change, to become more positive, to think more positively, to talk to ourselves and others in a more positive fashion, because to do so we have to unravel and re-create a whole new programming… something that takes time, effort, dedication, and commitment.

Don’t believe me? Then I have a challenge for you today. Today I invite you to consciously stop using or thinking the word “but”. See how you get on. If you want to really gauge how difficult it is, mention your challenge to everyone you know you’ll spend time with and ask them to highlight each time you use the word (when you don’t notice it yourself). Perhaps carry around a jar with you and every time you use the word or are told you’ve used the word, pop a penny or cent in the jar. I guarantee, if you follow this challenge meticulously, you’ll be shocked at how often this little word enters your vocabulary each day without you realising it in time to stop it and you’ll be shocked at how difficult it is to stop thinking or saying it.

Trying to stop doing or saying something that has been part of our makeup for years and decades is far from simple. And the same is true for our exposure to fear and negativity.

You should know by now (because I bang on about it so much) that we attract what we are, that if we reside in a low vibration (and fear is a low vibration) then we’re going to attract more negative things that will only enhance that fear further and that are of a similar vibration. So, in order to change your life, to enjoy a richer (in all sense of the word) and more fulfilling life, you’ve got to change your vibe and reside in one that is much higher.

And just like erasing the “but” from your vocabulary, that’s easier said than done.

So how do you do it?

Well, my answer to that is “gradually and repeatedly”. It’s simply not feasible to choose tomorrow to live in a higher vibe and magically create that reality. Just like it’s taken years and decades to unwittingly reside in a low vibration, to takes time to consciously move up to a higher vibration. However, good news is, though it takes time and commitment to get there, it doesn’t have to take a lot of time every single day. Even 15-20 minutes a day will make a substantial difference over a period of time, let’s say a year.

And that’s exactly the concept around which I created my Start Monday with Gratitude year-long experience because when you spend even a little time each day practising gratitude, after a year gratitude will become a more comfortable and natural place to reside – it’ll become your new normal.

And when you do tumble because, after all, life does happen and even though you may learn to reside in the high vibe of gratitude, you can occasionally get side-swiped, you’ll find you can get back up, dust yourself off, and return to that high vibe a lot faster and easier.

Viv xx