Struggling with feeling anxious, stressed, depressed and / or tired?

Photo by Sean Oulashin on Unsplash

Feelings like those may come from either being in the future too much with your thoughts or in the past too much... Both do not exist and are out of your control. The only "thing "you can control is right now... Us humans we do well with repetition, we learn by repeating "things". When you repeat "something" at least 7 times, preferably using different modalities such as feeling it, seeing it, smelling it, hearing it... your brain creates shortcuts to this "thing" and you will be able to access this "thing" quicker and easier.

Repeat it regularly every day at least once then your brain starts to upgrade this "thing" to the subconscious level. That means you no longer have to be aware of it. You don't need to think about it, you just do it and then might notice that you are doing it". Imagine this "thing" was something negative and exhausting, harmful and toxic like self talk can be or worries from being (in the future) out of control or feeling depressed because you have tried and tried but it's not working (which may come from being in the past repeating something that does not help the problem). Imagine you did repeat something very helpful and nurturing. ...and you kept doing it until one day it was just second nature, subconscious , like being able to walk, ride a bike, drive a car...

Here is one thing you can start to do:

An exercise in being in the NOW.

I call it "Anchor into NOW". Every morning , every lunchtime, every evening for at least one minute.

• STOP.
• Sit down...
• close your eyes...
• focus on the feeling of your feet on the ground...
• lift your toes ...
• wriggle your toes...
• feel the difference in your feet...
• feel the chair pushing up against you, holding you...
• feel how you are breathing...
• just observe your breath...
• in through your nose out through your nose...
• begin to extend the exhale for two counts...(if you like you can begin to count your in and exhale time)
• Direct your inhale into your belly...
• let your belly bulge and exhale ...
• empty completely (2 counts longer than the inhale) belly in.

This kind of breathing triggers a relaxation response in the body. Take 10 cycles of focused in and exhales. That's it! Well done. Now repeat 3 x a day, every day... reassess how you feel after doing this for a whole week, then after 2 weeks and so on. The magic is in the doing...

with love
Gloria