Is peace a primal emotion?
No, peace has no place in primal headspace. Instead, a useful substitute would be "happiness."
Happiness is the absence of a threat. It's hard to feel happy when we see threats all around us - loss of jobs, a new way of living, social distancing, etc.
But I want to offer a thought that might fly in the face of conventional thinking - are those actual threats now?
Yes, we might have lost a job and, therefore, income. We might fear not being able to have a home, buy food, support our families, or other things. But those fears have not come to pass, and in our moment, we're able to survive. Our threats are not real to us yet, we have time to be proactive and make an effort to change our circumstance - to be self-effective.
Yes, we might contract an illness that could kill us. But, at the moment, we are healthy, taking steps to avoid transmission, and supplying our bodies with nutrition. Whereas, we have not yet become ill, is the threat real? We need to be proactive (there's that word again) and make an effort to keep ourselves healthy, avoid living in stress, practice mindfulness - to be self-effective.
While peace and calm are not primal emotions, and it might be difficult to feel "happy," it is not difficult to see that the threats are not yet real.
My unsolicited advice is simple.
Take what's going on seriously.
Prepare yourself and improve your life to the best of your abilities.
Give your body the proper nutrition, exercise, and rest.
Recognize the threats happening now versus the ones that might possibly happen later.
Focus on now.
Ask yourself, "If I am not in a threatened circumstance now - at this moment, as if something real is about to be taken away from me - like my apartment, my car, my food, my health, my life, or my family; is it possible that I might be at peace?
You are not your mind. What you imagine is not yet real. Deal with the real, find your calm, and then do what you can to be prepared for the storm.
