How To Nurture Yourself In The Aftermath Of A Hurricane

We Can Find Serenity In The Aftermath

Resting In
The Unknown

Create a
Post-Disaster Routine to Embody
Your Values

• Morning coffee and reading an inspiring or uplifting book
  

• Writing a list of situation-based activities and preparing for them
  ~ Doing one or two of the items
  

• Writing a letter to a friend that you usually text with or a friend you haven’t caught up with in a while
  

• Clearing overstuffed closets and finding items to throw out or donate
  

• Doing a few chores at times when you would be working
  

• Reading, or playing a board game or single-player card game like solitaire before bed
  

• Taking a camp-stove (or other method) to heat some water and take a "bird bath"; spend an hour preparing this and then washing up with soap before bed. Save a little water to pour over your head and face. Try candles in the bathroom and some comforting scents.
  

• Going to bed earlier

Going from:

To:

Body and Soul:
Inner Hygiene

Identifying And Releasing Expectations

First-Things-First:
Your Environment And The Facts

Settling: Gentle Inquiry

For hours hurricane Helene swirled over Western North Carolina while the hundreds of trees that surround my home threatened to crush everything below, my office being right in their path. This was the height of three days of severe weather. Feeling unsafe during the storm made serenity seem distant. This feeling can continue after a natural disaster has passed and the situation continues to be unstable.

Finding serenity is possible in the wake of a natural disaster. With awareness as my primary tool- these are the ways that I found serenity during the aftermath of hurricane Helene. They can be applied to any situation that throws you out of balance.

1. Take an hour.

Make sure you won’t be disturbed. Let anyone you live with know that you need some quiet time and when you will be available again.

2. Sitting or lying down, close your eyes.

Turn the attention from thoughts to what you feel in the body. If a thought is happening, notice where the thought is represented in space (in or around the body).

3. Notice sensations that relate to the thoughts.

Notice sensations already present in the chest, throat or belly.

4. Notice any emotional elements.

Is there fear, anger, despair; sadness, or restlessness?

5. Now, notice the rest of the body,

the places that are not lighting up with sensation.

Ask, is there any part of me that isn’t feeling this? Notice the witness of the emotion- Is the witness of the emotion the emotion itself?

Be the witness of the emotion.

6. Ask the emotion: "What are you believing?"

Imagine the emotion had a voice ...what would it be saying?

It might say, “If I don’t take action now, I won’t be worthy of love” or, “If I have nothing to give I don’t deserve to be alive”. Take this time to listen to your emotion’s view on the situation.

Then...

As a witness ask: “Is it completely true that _________________…”

7. Offer compassion to this emotion.

In what way can you foster nurturing for yourself? Perhaps by giving attention to your basic needs of hygiene, rest, and time to stabilize, you can show this feeling in the body that even when you don’t take action for others, you are worthy of love.

8. Finish the hour with yourself

with one hand on your chest and one on your belly.

Commit to taking care of yourself as well as others during this time, and continuing to listen to signals from the body as you resume your day.

First assess the environment around you. If there is no immediate threat to your safety, just take it one small step at a time. Remember: “First Things First”. The purpose is to find out what may become a threat if it is not addressed soon. This may be debris obscuring exits, leaking pipes (gas or water), hanging debris from buildings or trees around the home, or people who are injured or unwell in the direct vicinity. Just take note of what is likely to get worse and what can be returned to. This is a fact-finding step before taking action.

Once we’ve sorted out expectations from facts we can begin to look into the physical discomfort that is present here and now.

Recognize that everything you wrote down is true for you and could not have been predicted.

With compassion, acknowledge that the unknown is part of being human.
We have less control than the mind says we have, and connecting to how we are humbled and powerless can highlight this.
Next, rest.

After the evaluation, take some time to rest. Release the expectations to the facts. Commit to embracing the unknown...for now. Remember, even our thoughts cannot be predicted. Set a timer if it helps you and get comfortable. Rest without any intention to do anything- but to simply rest in not-knowing. If anything arises, release it to the reality of the unknown.

This is when processing the aftermath began for me- days after the initial storm.

The first few days were about making sure that all were safe around me. The following week I took time to notice my physical and mental state.

I tend to be productive but also spend time connecting with myself every day. It was essential for me to find ways to still be active and create new kinds of work for myself. I'm used to connecting with my partner when cooking and adventuring, doing computer-based work, and I call people every day.

This is how I applied self-care and found some rest in the aftermath of hurricane Helene.

No electricity meant that all my computer work ceased, cooking was not easy, and I couldn't make coaching sessions or phone calls. This being the reality, I made a decision to surrender all worry about abandoning my old routine; I decided no amount of mental gymnastics would turn the situation around- and that any focus on these types of thoughts was a waste of my energy.

To switch the focus I looked at the facts and then took action. The fact was that my routine needed to be wiped and remade in a way that aligned with my values. Here's how to rework the routine compassionately.

I value connection. One way I adjusted my routine was to begin writing letters to people that I hadn’t connected with for a long time. I had more time in my schedule to clean up my office, coming across postage stamps and envelopes that had been lost. I created a comfortable, calm, clean space in which to connect with my old friends, and then I added writing letters to my routine. I wrote letters to people each day. I found it felt intimate to write to them with pen and paper, and I felt connected.

When I didn’t have the motivation to connect to a friend in a letter, I wrote about my state of mind and what my daily priorities were now compared to before the storm. Similar to when Covid-19 struck the U.S., I had fallen out of the habit of writing in journals. I now added this back into my day. The lack of connection with others was soothed by connecting to them in letters or to myself in my journals.

When disaster strikes we can sometimes feel guilty if we don’t run to help right away.
The truth is that if we don’t feel worthy of care for ourselves we don’t have much to give.

Before going out to help others, assess your body. Here is what I did:

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