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Calming the Chaos

Calming the Chaos is a podcast by Licensed Mental Health Counselor Tracy Kenela. She uses profound and often humorous stories from her own life to illustrate how chaos can show up, and how emotional it can be! Anxiety, depression, fear, worry, shame and overwhelm can be managed using a variety of simple tools, skills and techniques. Tracy uses her experience as a counselor and her own personal work to provide you with hope…as well as some simple coping techniques, support and encouragement... that will help you move toward a more peaceful and enjoyable life.

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World Chaos

Feb 16, 2020

Episode Title: World Chaos

In this episode of “Calming the Chaos,” we’ll be talking about a situation that is happening right now in our world…in February of 2020, that appears to be chaotic. The Coronavirus.

The intention of this podcast is to:

1)            Give you tips, tools and techniques to help you cope with any mental chaos you have when you hear news of chaos and / or chaotic events around the world

2)            To see how the people directly involved in this situation are handling their “chaos.”

Before going into the two situations, let’s review the definition of “chaos”

  1. What is Chaos? (A review)
  • Complete disorder
  • Unpredictable behavior
  • Random or intense situations
  • Small changes that happen in bundles or are sensitive in nature
  • Disorganized
  • (And my favorite) A confused mass or mixture.

Perceived Chaos vs. Real Chaos

  • Perceived Chaos: Is stressful, but non-life-threatening. Those things that “feel chaotic” and the things one tends to perceive as disorganized, random or intense, and that are just “too much” to handle. Like fear of flying, an argument with a friend or family member, being bombed by unkind text messages, or just looking at the mail…or your hall closet!

 

  • Real Chaos: Life threatening emergencies. These include anything uncontained, such natural disasters, (floods, fires, traffic accidents, mass shootings, riots, power outages).

The Coronavirus: History. And let’s consider how it meets the definition of chaos

  • How it meets the definition of chaos – All of the above

 

  • How I handled hearing about it – Initial panic, breathing, calming the body, checking the facts. “What’s true now?”

 

  • How people directly affected are handling it – The Cruise Ship Diamond Princess

 

  • Lady from Oregon, tested positive and was separated from her husband while in quarantine and receiving medical treatment.

Skills used:

  1. Social media to communicate with husband, family and friends
  2. Watching movies
  3. Thinking positively (positive suggestions) “We’ll be home soon”
  4. Noticing signs in her body

 

  • Elderly male who wasn’t in quarantine, but didn’t receive 2 hour updates as promised, and didn’t receive food for over 12 hours. “I could go into a coma if I don’t eat soon.”

 

  • Passengers who don’t test positive, but feel like “sitting ducks.” Vulnerable.

 

  • One family not separated, but making the most of it. “We consider ourselves lucky that we haven’t been separated from our children.” They are coping using exercising, stretching, using social media to chat with friends and family, playing games, watching movies, but in general, missing out on the life they want to live, and the things they want to do outside of the cruise ship cabin.

 

Update: Those who choose to return to the United States on the charter aircraft will be required to undergo another 14 days of quarantine. "We understand this is frustrating and an adjustment, but these measures are consistent with the careful policies we have instituted to limit the potential spread of the disease."

Skills and tools we can use:

The “NICE” method works for those who are directly and indirectly affected by real chaos:

  1. Notice the feelings in your body
  2. Identify and validate the emotion(s)
  3. Calm the body using soothing technique
  4. Evaluate your connection to the source: how much news do you really want:

 

  1. An obsessive news listener
  2. A regular news listener
  3. A mindful news listener
  4. A “No News at all” listener

Conclusion: Whether you are affected by real chaos, or whether you are affected by the media’s portrayal of the real chaos others are experiencing, it’s good to learn to notice your feelings, and how they show up in your body.

When you are directly affected by a chaotic situation, you’ll see your environment change, and you are faced with having to make adjustments to keep yourself safe. You can use the NICE Method.

Also, when you are indirectly affected by seeing chaos in the news, the NICE method still works.

And from there, you’ll find a calmer place in your mind to deal with the real chaos that is happening in your life or find a calmer place in your mind to deal with the chaos you see happening to other people.

Visit my Website: at www.lokahicounseling.com and click on the Podcast page with ways to get to my podcast.

  • Practicing mindfulness has been shown to reduce stress and increase clear thinking in times of chaos.

On my website, under the Podcast page, there is a link to my CD “On This Day,” which teaches you to teach you mindfulness in less than 10 minutes throughout the day. You can purchase the CD on Amazon at http://bit.ly/onthisdaycd, or in digital format at https://music.apple.com/us/album/on-this-day/1209386067

  • Follow me!

Facebook: Lokahi Counseling, at https://www.facebook.com/lokahi.counseling.9

Twitter (@the_calming)

Instagram (calmingthec)

LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracy-kenela-79935b5/)

YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7qISnLR8T4g-bSDu-pW9LQ?view_as=subscriber

Libsyn: calmingthechaos.libsyn.com/