I regularly pull from a deck of Animal Medicine Cards to set my intention for the day or get an idea of where my head is really at. Not surprisingly, I picked Armadillo out of the card fan this morning. Its guidance? Boundaries.

As someone who has been watching the news on a limited basis and attempting to keep my own hand on the rudder as I steer through 24/7 CVN (CoronaVirus News), it was perfect. Of course, that’s the double-edged sword:

• Are you seeing what you want to see? Gathering justification for fear and hunkering down?
• Or as the guidebook directs, thinking about “what you will and won’t do; what makes you feel uncomfortable and what is comforting to you.” Manifesting your intentions and commanding the universe?

I armed myself with these thoughts as I ventured out for my daily “hell no, I’m not staying in.” The official pronouncements have worked on me in classic deprivation fashion. Tell your body you can’t have something and it wants It.

That’s not to say that I’ve embraced what a friend calls “covidiocy.” I’m trying to do what I haven’t done most of my life – to respond instead of react, or perhaps pay more attention to what my gut reactions are saying.

How do you:

• Discern what keeps us safe in a world where every little thing from a handshake to a hug carries danger;
• Pick apart fact from fear-mongering;
• Ground yourself when chaos is hovering everywhere;
• Hold a steady and normal course in these windy and rough times of change?

I imagine all of us are struggling with this, and the temptation is to be judgmental when people “come down” in a different place than you. How would it be if we noticed that deep-down, this is what the world needs – to protect, understand and respect each other again. To heal from the inside out.