What’s your top priority right now?  Is it delivering on your job while working from home? Schooling your children through distance learning? Figuring out how you’re going to pay your bills?

As important as these things are, I’d like to suggest that you really have one paramount priority during this coronavirus pandemic, and that is keeping your immune system strong.

I say this because whether you keep your work-from-home job, keep up with your children’s school assignments or even pay your bills are all first dependent on surviving COVID-19.  That’s the top priority.  You must survive this thing by avoiding contracting it altogether or recovering even if you get infected. You increase your chances in both scenarios by having a healthy immune system.

So what can you do to enhance your immunity?

• Obviously, wash your hands and keep physical distance from others, as is prescribed by health officials all over the world.
• Take immune-boosting supplements.
• Eat nutrient-rich foods.
• Get sufficient rest.
• Drink lots of water.

All of these are probably no-brainers and make perfect sense. But consider these as well:

• Feed & lean on your faith.
• Limit information intake from the news and social media.
• Engage only in positive conversation.
• Practice gratitude.
• Avoid alcohol and junk foods.
• Say ‘no’ to every source of optional stress. This includes:
  • Pressure and pressuring your children to do schoolwork
  • Arguments
  • Worry – in truth, this is optional. Get into a mindset that will help you choose a better approach (such as faith or seeing the opportunities and silver linings within the crisis)
  • Financial anxiety – unless it will protect your immune system or provide a basic survival need, it can wait until the pandemic is over.
• See the opportunity, silver linings, or unexpected blessings.

The world is in the midst of change. Anticipate where it is going and align yourself to be in position to take advantage when the dust settles and the pandemic clears. Use this time to:

• Build skills
• Deepen your faith
• Improve your health
• Develop better habits
• Nurture neglected and important relationships

It’s a good time to:

1. Reflect on the life you were living pre-Corona Virus. How sustainable was it for your health, your family’s wellbeing, and your financial security?
2. Activate or strengthen your faith. It’s reassuring to have something bigger than yourself to believe in. With the world as shaken up as it is, it’s good to have an anchor. Many are coming to find that their anchors aren’t holding up. Whether it was the job that gave you a sense of security, a self-confidence that you thought was unshakeable, or possessions you thought secured your happiness. In various ways, we are being stripped down and finding out what is and isn’t so reliable.
3. Decide who you want to be on the other side of this. What habits or lifestyles do you want to let go of, and what do you want to embrace? What lockdown silver linings and hidden blessings will you maintain once the stay at home order is lifted?
4. Take action to move you in the direction of the person you want to emerge as from this pivotal moment. Take a course. Start a workout or meal plan. Be the gatekeeper of your attention and watch your soul’s intake through what you view, read, and listen to.

This week, try to focus only on your focus. Give priority only to your priorities. Give attention only to your intentions. How does one focus on your focus?

1^st – determine your priority or goal

2^nd – apply your attention, energy, and effort to that goal

3^rd – make sure it is your priorities – not someone else’s – that are receiving your attention, energy, and action. It is easy to get distracted. We either procrastinate, get caught up with easier and less critical tasks, or allow someone else’s agenda to grab and arrest our attention. Most often, this happens via news or social media. Don’t be a casualty of the information wars, fear-mongering, and blame games that abound.

Do a focus check throughout your day. Are you FOCUSED on your focus? If not, simply shift back to the task that is important and beneficial to you. It is natural for us to lose focus sometimes, so don’t dwell on it if you notice you’ve lost yours. The important thing is to re-focus every time you get off track, even if it happens multiples times in a day.