Be the Mask

I have a saying I use when I need to focus my mind and ignore a consistent annoyance, ‘be the (issue)'. We have some bugs where I live that come about in the summertime called Gnats, and they annoy me beyond words. So, when we are outside enjoying the weather and they are persistently plaguing us, I say to my kids 'be the Gnats' and they try to focus their minds through deep breathing on our activities and less on the Gnats. So, now COVID-19 has changed our lives and our minds struggle to develop new habits like wearing masks and social distancing. Both are incredibly challenging for me because I am Jamaican and we are expressive with nods, touches, jabs and pokes and a very interactive hello, but I'm learning. You see I am mindful of the pandemic's reality even though I have no fear in it. My attention or you can say my faith is placed on being proactive to boost the spiritual and immunological aspect of the members of my household. So, prayer, diet, exercise, water, detoxing, and lots of sun are our priority. But we do not ignore precautions and the law.

It's always harder to break a bad habit than it is to form a new healthy one that overrides or cancels out that older one. So, while I am developing new habits from the challenges of this pandemic, I also don't want to lose a lot of what makes me human. This experience has taught me that I want to appreciate others more in every encounter and so I try even harder to make sure to be present in my daily interactions with others, especially behind the mask. It is harder to show empathy and connection through facial expressions and voice tones now that our lover face is covered by a mask and this can reduce the power of our non-verbal communication like a smile, smirk, or frown. So, we must be intentional in communicating with others,

My second and great challenge is the masking. I grew up with severe respiratory illnesses and spent much time in hospitals as a result. This has created not a dislike, but a hate to have my nasal breathing blocked in anyway. Having a cold with nasal congestion is one of the worst things I must go through. This is so because, my mind has stored the childhood trauma of my mom who was a severe asthmatic and myself having serious breathing issues. So, can you imagine how hard it has been for me to adjust to a mask? Nevertheless, I had to keep my job and go about life in this new norm and get through this somehow and so, I decided to be the mask. Yup, you read right 'Be the Mask".

How do we become one with the mask? I am sure Muslim women smile at our difficulty adjusting to this, because through their daily lives as married women they have had to be the mask. Well I've had to develop a system to overcome my mask-phobia and while it may not fit everyone's way it could be a place for many to start. Firstly, I have many different masks for many occasions and weather depending on my proximity to others and air ventilation and then, I have a system of breathing. This system of 'being the mask' helps to reduce carbon dioxide intake which is destructive to our bodies on a cellular level, and it also settles our mind and encourages peace within the body through anchoring our focus in deep breathing. If you cannot afford a $40 and up mask that separates your air inflow from outflow, this system can and will help you. It works by breathing deeply in through the nose and slowly breathing out and down throw the mouth. This helps you to take in more oxygen and slowly diffuse more carbon dioxide and not inhale as much back into the body. It also centers the mind and normalizes body systems like blood pressure and your heart rate. Trust me, this system will take mental effort to develop as a new habit but, if masks have become a way of life for us, then we better develop strategies to live with it. This is one that is helping me. So, 'Be the Mask'.