When I became limited in all areas of life, the first thing I did was look for answers and train myself. Soon I found out that the routines and habits that were healthy before, are far from helpful in recovering from Long Covid. With only 5% of my former energy left, I was disappointed about all the things I had to let go of. Logically I got more negative and so did my self-talk, about all the things I couldn’t do anymore. What I didn’t realize how ineffective this was for recovery, feeding my brain with negativity.
I learned to be thankful for smaller things in almost invisible tiny steps. I practiced gratitude deliberately for over a year, till it became a natural way of living. Nowadays I can be happy seeing other people walking outside when I am in bed all day.
Let me start with my first meditation where I felt overwhelmed by emotions about 1,5 years before Covid, during an event with Michael Pilarczyk. A guided meditation with music left such an impression, I kept meditating with the app Meditation Moments. It helped me through my first period of Long Covid, followed by meditations and exercises by Jay Shetty, Deepak Chopra, Vishen Lakhani, and Tony Robbins.
Meditation led to more awareness of what I physically and emotionally felt. It helped me to cope and to change my mind.
To train my brain, I started to read and listen at the same time in “Think like a monk”, hoping I would retain the information. I kept practicing and my next book was “Limitless” by Jim Kwik, which I read for the Genius book club. The book club kept me focused to finish books and hearing about the things I had already forgotten. I am mesmerized by the moments I am recalling or even using what I learned in books while I can’t tell you what a book was about.
During workshops by Jim Kwik, I heard about brainwave states for the first time. If I am sleeping and resting this much combined with cognitive problems, there must be something wrong with my Gamma and Beta state. Crazy as I am I asked myself the question: “What if I can use my Delta state to get work done?” I found it utterly fascinating and got better at remembering my theta and alpha state thoughts. My mindset went from frustration to fascination and my journey magically continued. I found a follow-up in Mindvalley by meditating with different teachers. I am still learning how to use visualization for healing and effectively use my brainwave states.