E2 Jesper Westmark - How to deal with stress and anxiety following COVID-19, Why we retreat

Jesper Westmark – How to deal with difficult emotions, anxiety and stress following COVID-19.

1:09 – Guided meditation with Jesper Westmark
6:22 – Introduction to the podcast and to the retreat center Sjövik
8:21 - The concept of retreating, where does the concept come from, what are the benefits, and what happens when we retreat. Seeing your world as it is, connecting to you as consciousness and love.
9:55 – The story and definition of the word retreat
10:25 – The importance of nature to connect to our innate wisdom, using the natural environment to reset
12:47 – Can we take what we learn on retreat with us into our daily life
14:03 – Meditation is a healing treatment, it benefits our mental and physical health, using the right medicine for the right things
15:58 – Surviving instead of living; Meditation can help deal with stress and anxiety, it is hard to see when we have lost ourselves but meditation can help us land in ourselves 19:14 – You have to recognize your patterns before you can change them, bring them into consciousness.
19:55 – COVID-19; how to deal with stress, fear, and anxiety during change and uncertain times. Fear is created when you go out into the future instead of staying in the present moment. The future is not real.
22:16 - Watching the news will increase fearful feelings of stress, anxiety, and loss of control
23:24 -  Use the COVID-19 situation to develop a meditation practice, it will also boost your immune system, fear does the opposite.
25:51 - How to deal with feelings of anxiety: allowing your feelings to be as they are, stop suppressing the difficult emotions. Stop searching for fear and anxiety in your environment and create a safe and peaceful environment.
28:29 - Taking responsibility for yourself and letting go of fixing others, be the change you want to see.
29:15 - Learning how to meditate: use guided meditation, find resources online on www.jesperwestmark.com, go on a meditation retreat in your local community
31:20 - Mirror neurons; how we learn unconsciously from other people, meditating together
32:00 – What is stress, why do we like to be stressed, losing yourself to the stress in city life, how we look at work
35:43 – Lessons about stress and how we live from COVID-19, connecting to ourselves, 37:40 – Ways of escaping, running away from who you are,
39:10 – COVID-19 gives us the time to look at who we really are
39:57 – The interest for retreats is increasing