The earth has already calmed down...

Now is the time to calm down, and if it can be achieved. We already feel that the earth stopped moving, but we are still shaking inside, and that is a completely natural response of our body.

Two weeks after the June 24 earthquake in Venezuela, many of us are facing a silent and overwhelming dilemma: a return to routine.

Reopening businesses, posting on social networks, working or laughing generates in many people a deep feeling of guilt... with total reason. Knowing what is right and what is wrong, at what point the balance is is a whole issue.
We ask ourselves: Is it okay for me to carry on with my life while others lost everything?

This "survivor's guilt" or the discomfort of reactivating ourselves is a common human response in collective crises.

Faced with an event as shocking as the one we are living through (something that has not happened in our country with such magnitude for 59 years), our nervous system is flooded with cortisol and adrenaline.

The immediate danger passed, but the internal alarm remained on.

The good news is that we can turn off that alarm, to restore security to our body, supporting our mental health and doing so involves breathing consciously to send the biological signal to the brain that we are already safe. Moving our body through walking, stretching or shaking our hands also helps us to drain the undrained fear and tension that build up physically. Movement helps to release the energy trapped by post-traumatic stress.

Sticking to the routine is like trying to eat at our own hours, expose ourselves to early sunlight and rest.

For a frightened nervous system, the predictable and the simple is the best refuge. To this we can add the news fast (Digital Diet), you have to inform yourself only of what is right and necessary, oh and drop the phone at times. Because continuing to see images of the disaster, of the double earthquake that occurred this June 24 in my country Venezuela, in a loop, only reactivates the trauma. They ask us to be patient. To heal is not to erase what has been lived; it is to make the memory stop hurting in the body.

I think and so I believe that in moments of uncertainty when the weeks pass and we experience constant nightmares, paralyzing anguish or we feel that fear does not let up, we do not have to carry it alone. Seeking psychological support is not weakness, it is courage and self-care, that matters deeply for our mental health to somehow recover your center.

To understand what is behind this feeling and how to move forward with purpose and without self-reproach.

However, the shutdown is not helping to rebuild the country. The current challenge is to learn to balance the need to continue and work, keeping our channels of help and empathy active. It is about moving forward without losing solidarity.

Janitze 🦋