Hey, my loves.
So, we are going through something so unique and crazy.
It feels like we're living in a movie, doesn't it?
So I wanted to make a video to address coronavirus, COVID-19,
and how we can stay calm, find peace, love, and hope
in all of this crazy, chaotic situation.
First off, this is something that is impacting every single person on the planet.
So, if you're not taking it seriously yet, seriously consider it.
Social distancing can save lives right now.
It's so important.
I've been quarantining for almost two weeks now.
I've only gone out to get groceries and that's it.
Not only is this impacting people's health, people's lives,
people's families and loved ones,
this is impacting politics, our economy –
just everyone on a global scale is impacted.
And it's scary to think that it's going to be here for a while.
I don't think it's going away anytime soon.
We're going to be going through this for a few months at least.
And honestly, while we're staying home, doing our part –
social distancing and practicing good hygiene –
the real MVPs are the people who are working right now,
who are working tirelessly, whether you're working in healthcare –
doctors and nurses or people working on trying to find a vaccine,
people working in grocery stores,
just people working to keep our society and system together and running
and functioning as best as possible during this time.
So seriously, thank you.
And I appreciate all of you people doing that out there.
And the rest of us have to do our part to just stay home
and stop spreading this virus, okay?
I feel so grateful for the privilege that I have,
because as a YouTuber, my job is a stay at home job.
So my life hasn't changed as drastically as a lot of people's lives have.
I am really honestly so grateful and privileged to be able to do this.
But a lot of people's lives are being affected,
a lot of jobs are being lost, a lot of income is not coming in,
and it's kind of scary and sad and crazy.
And I know that a lot of us want to get into a dark place.
I know a lot of us want to panic.
There's a lot of uncertainty, a lot of anxiety and fear going on.
So I am just here to try to share my thoughts
and my points to help ease all of that.
And I recognize that in all of this, I play a part too,
because I have a platform so that I can share ideas
that can get to at least a few thousand of you out there.
And that's better than nothing.
So I'm here doing my best,
and I want you to do your part to do your best.
And I'll get to that later.
I have seven main points to share today.
If you have no patience, you can check down below for my timestamps.
The first point is in this crazy, chaotic time,
we have to remember to 1) be kind and choose love.
There is so much fear in the world right now,
and love is really the true opposite of fear.
Love brings people together.
Fear tears people apart.
And I know you've seen people being torn apart right now, just like I have.
I've seen people fighting over toilet paper at the grocery store,
people stealing from old ladies' carts at the grocery store.
It's so sad – and also: the racism against Asians.
I'm Chinese American and I am getting more racist comments.
And I see just violent, unfair, racist actions and words thrown at Asian people,
and it's just not what we need right now.
Racism, separation, blaming people is not going to help anybody right now.
What we need to do is come together, help each other,
support each other, be caring towards one another,
because at the end of the day, we are all human beings,
and this virus does not discriminate.
I posted this graphic on Instagram
illustrating what love looks like,
and then what fear looks like,
and I'll link it down below if you want to read the entire post.
You have to channel the vibration, the energy of love during this time,
because love is the only thing that is going to keep us together,
and we really have to work through this together as a global community.
Next, if you want to ease your fear, anxiety, and worries during this time,
the best thing you can do is:
2) Be present and focus on what you can control.
There are so many things in the world that we can't control.
You have to accept the things that you can't control,
but then recognize the things that you can control.
We can control how we respond to events.
So the same event can happen, but you can choose to take it negatively,
or you can choose to be positive about it.
You can choose your words, your thoughts, and your actions.
You can choose to do something good
or you can choose to self sabotage or sabotage others.
You have the power to choose love over fear in any given situation.
You have the power to choose to be a good human being,
instead of being someone that's overtaken by fear and panic
and giving into all those negative emotions.
You can control the way you feel.
You can control which thoughts and which emotions to give into.
A lot of the fear people have is the fear of uncertainty.
They don't know where the world's going to be in a few months.
They don't know if they're going to get sick,
if their loved one's going to get sick,
if they're going to lose all their money or lose their jobs.
People are scared and I get it,
but that fear is based in something in the future that has not happened yet,
and you can't control the future.
You can't control something that hasn't happened.
That's not in your sphere of influence.
So you have to focus on what you can control in the present moment.
The present moment is the only place that you have control over.
You can't change the past and you can't control the future.
There's so many unknowns, so focus on the moment in front of you.
Do the best that you can.
Make preparations.
Stay informed.
Everything is right here, right now,
and anything outside of the right now
is something that you cannot control.
So you should not waste any time worrying about it.
Next, I want to touch on:
3) Cleansing your energy and finding inner calm during this time.
So I want you to recognize that,
even though the outside world is in turmoil,
things are crazy and chaotic right now,
you still have control over your inner world.
You control the way you feel.
You can regulate your emotions.
Learning to regulate your emotions
and not identify with your emotions is something that takes practice.
It's like working a muscle,
and it's a muscle that gets stronger
by doing practices such as meditation.
And people that meditate have that inner calm, inner zen.
They have the practice to center themselves,
even if everything outside is crazy,
even if you feel all these emotions.
And at this point, I do want to say that
whatever you're feeling right now,
your feelings are valid.
Your emotions are valid.
It's okay to feel fear.
It's okay to be sad.
It's okay to be angry.
Whatever you're feeling, it's okay to feel it.
But what I'm saying is: You want to feel the emotion.
Express it in a healthy way.
Don't take it out on other people.
And then after you express your emotion, try to understand,
“Okay, why did I feel that way? Where does it come from?”
And then you can start to become more level-headed and calm
and understand why you felt these emotions,
but understand also that those emotions do not define you.
You are just not an angry person, but you felt anger.
Another point on this is if you are a sensitive person, if you are empathic,
if you feel like you take on other people's emotions,
this is a time to really do extra work to protect and cleanse your energy.
I noticed that after reading all this news
about the virus and politics and the racism,
the things people are saying online,
there was a day where I just had to cry it out.
It was not because I felt sad for myself.
It was because I was sad for the world
and what people were going through.
For some reason, I was able to take on these emotions of people,
and I was mad at racist comments I was getting,
but at the same time, I was feeling pain
because I get that these people are not happy.
They're going through a tough time too
and all of that is just really heavy, right?
So I recognize that you need to release this heaviness in a healthy way,
so you can do things like talking to people,
talking it out with your friends, your loved ones, just to get it out.
Journaling, you guys know I love to journal.
I have to journal all my thoughts and feelings,
otherwise they kind of stay inside,
and I'm not about repressing emotions.
I'm the person that tells you to let it out.
You need to find outlets to physically express your energy:
exercise, sweat, dance, do yoga.
Even singing or yelling and making weird noises
can help get that energy out of your body.
If you think about it, when you get mad,
you are activating the fight or flight response in your body, the stress response –
meaning your blood is flowing to your muscles,
because your body is getting ready to fight,
and that is not a healthy state to be in.
And you know, typically in the situation where it's necessary,
back in the caveman days,
the fight or flight response allowed you to either fight
or run away from an animal really fast.
But nowadays we activate that response
and we don't do anything about it,
and thus it's just keeping it in.
So you want to physically let it out because it can really help you.
Trust me: it worked when I was mad.
Another practice I already mentioned was meditation.
Meditate to center yourself,
to be aware of your thoughts and emotions
and recognize that those are not you.
You are the calm, still soul,
and your thoughts and emotions are everything on the surface.
So that helps too.
Some people like to go out into nature.
Some people like to use crystals or sage, things like that, to cleanse your energy.
Another thing I should have said first is to actually reduce your screen time.
If you feel like all of this is too much and it's too heavy,
just put your phone away,
get off the internet,
and live in your life in the present moment.
Find something else to occupy yourself with,
something positive and healthy, a creative outlet.
Next, the virus has taught us that:
4) We are all interconnected.
I think that's one of the biggest lessons
that we are learning during this time,
that your actions do not only affect you,
it affects the people around you, which affects the people around them,
which is this huge network that is our entire global world,
not just the people, but also our ecosystems.
So more and more we are learning that we cannot be selfish.
We must think of others.
We must think and care about other people to protect all of us,
because we're literally all in this together,
and it goes back to: we are one human race.
We are one global community on earth
and we really have to come together,
recognize that, stop fighting each other.
Stop trying to hoard all the stuff for ourselves
and protect only ourselves and let everybody else lose.
It's not about that because hurting other people
is hurting yourself in the bigger picture.
That's what people are recognizing now.
And that leads me to my next point,
which is incredibly important, that:
5) You are needed.
You play a part in this community, this interconnected global community,
whether you're doing your part just by
staying home and staying safe, staying healthy,
or whether you have a skill,
something that you can contribute that's of value to the world.
For me, my skill and my value is talking and sharing ideas
that can possibly help people through videos and content,
and although it's not like I'm saving lives exactly, I'm doing my part.
And I know there are doctors –
if you are a doctor or a nurse, you're playing your part, saving lives –
and if you are doing anything, if you have any skill, anything to give,
this is the time to give it because the world needs you.
People out there need you.
Whether it's just to entertain,
like if you're good at making TikTok videos,
you are keeping people entertained and happy and laughing right now.
Nothing is insignificant.
Everyone plays a part.
You and I are lights in this world,
and what we really need to do is light up one by one.
And when one person lights up,
you naturally inspire the people around you to light up as well.
I'm sure that you'll agree that this pandemic has revealed
some ugly parts of humanity, some of our dark parts.
It's revealed the good and the bad,
and what we can do as a society is to perpetuate the good.
We can become the good human beings, the good examples,
because we collectively, we have the power to change ourselves and do better.
I think what this pandemic has revealed is a lot of our systems are broken.
A lot of people are just so negative
and people need help, the world needs help.
And you can sit back and feel frustrated or discouraged by it,
or you can decide to stand up
and be a part of the people pushing our society to be better,
to become more aware of ourselves, of our flaws,
and to grow, to improve.
I mean, we can do that personally in our own lives
and that's what we talk about on Lavendaire.
But this is our chance to step up
and do what we can collectively.
I really think this is a collective effort here.
I can only do so much.
We need every single person stepping up and shining their light.
Now let's talk about 7) the silver lining and grand purpose of it all,
because I truly do believe that everything happens for a reason.
And I know, I know that what we're going through is so terrible.
A lot of people's lives are being lost.
A lot of people's lives are negatively affected
and it's going to be hard for a lot of us.
So I totally understand that.
But if you look at a person's life,
we personally, each of us, have gone through
so many difficult, challenging, even traumatic times.
And the fact that we are still alive and breathing
and watching this video, what you're doing right now,
shows that you made it through that time
and you are a stronger, wiser person because of it.
And I'm seeing that this is what's happening on the bigger scale,
that we are going through a major challenge together
and this is something that's so unique.
A pandemic like this doesn't happen super often.
I think this is really intense
and that's just telling me that when we are through this,
we are going to be so much stronger and wiser collectively.
Hopefully we'll level up in our consciousness, in our awareness.
Hopefully we create better human beings after this, better systems.
So nature is healing herself.
I truly do believe that we're all staying in
and we're healing ourselves within as well.
I think something transformational is happening
and we can't forget that.
We can't forget that there is a silver lining
and a greater purpose in all of this.
And when you focus on that, when you recognize that,
then you have more hope for the future,
because I know right now some people might feel hopeless and scared,
but remember that we will make it through this.
We'll make it through this together
and it's going to be okay in the end.
We're going to be stronger and yes, a lot of lives are going to be lost
and that's really, really sad.
But hopefully the lucky ones that are able to still be here after all of this,
we are the ones to usher in a brighter future for us all
because we've been through this.
We've been through this together,
we've suffered together, guys.
This is our collective traumatic experience
and I hope that we can heal from this, I really do.
I have a quote that I want to share at the end of this.
It's from a book called the I Ching,
which is one of the oldest books in Chinese history.
It talks about the flow of nature, the seasons, and patterns of life.
And one of the principles says that:
“When events proceed to their extremes,
they give birth to their opposites,”
and what it means is:
When events become extreme on one end,
then naturally, the other end is created or birthed.
And what I see is the more fear
and the more hate and negativity there is in the world,
the more people are stepping up
to be an example of love and light in the world.
Now, I am more empowered and motivated than ever
to share all of these ideas that I deeply want to share with the world,
because I know that people need it.
More people are stepping up and that gives me hope.
Another quote from the same book is also very relevant:
“As I saw the situation of my country deteriorating,
my heart became lighter.
I knew that after the long darkness there would be dawn.
When the darkness grew darker and darker,
the dawn drew closer and closer.”
I hope that puts things in perspective for you guys.
Again, I'm sending so much love to you all.
Please stay safe, stay healthy, drink a lot of water, get a lot of rest,
eat oranges, get some vitamin C into your system to boost your immunity.
Laugh with your loved ones.
Laughing boosts your immunity.
Smiling, being happy, dancing, singing, having fun, do all those things.
Do not forget that there's so much joy in life,
and there's still so much more to live for,
and we will get through this, okay?
Love you.
Bye!