PRACTICAL TIPS TO TAKE TIME AND MANUFACTURE TIME
What to do when you feel overwhelmed?
- See can you welcome your breath into your belly.
( Notice any resistance or irritation and do it anyway, some of us just hate to be told what to do!)
- Welcome your breath into your belly
(Again dont push away the judgements the ‘this wont work’ thoughts, they are all old habits)
- Take another breath
(More thoughts might come, more pings and beeps and to do thoughts... Welcome them like a pesky child and rather than shunting them away, create space with another breath and tell them you will be with them in a moment.)
- How is your body? Are you are feeling speedy or tight?
- How is your facial expression? Around your eyes your mouth?
- How is lower back and your jaw?
- Before the comparison thoughts or floods of inadequacy arise, remember to shower yourself with kindness. YOU have never done ‘THIS moment' before and these old taunting self critical comments aren’t YOU at all.
- Let any sense you may have of your body show you that you have CHOICES.
- Right in the moment YOU HAVE LOADS OF CHOICES.
- Ask yourself: Where did I learn that pushing myself to exhaustion was the only option and did others teach me this approach?
- Where did I learn that seeking help was admitting defeat, lazy or somehow wrong and that I must ALWAYS put the needs of others in front of my own?
- Where did my unique set of SHOULDs come from? Or the notion that parenting, work or life is hard work?
GOOD NEWS
YOU have just manufactured time amidst the whirlwind of a thousand things! Nature and pets are a great way to step off the treadmill too. In any moment we can ask ourselves what is the most compassionate, joyful or even humorous action I can take now, one that benefits me as well as those around me.
For those that like the SCIENCE, there is a lot of research that confirms that deepening our breath, slowing down, singing, plunging into cold water and other feel good activities directly benefit the vagus nerve that is a key part of our nervous system.
WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU FEEL OVERWHELMED SERIES:
