With the world in such chaos, it’s easy to let things bring you down emotionally. Feeling the pain, fear, anger (your own and that of others) can lead to you beginning to feel hopeless and unhappy.
Perhaps you are one of the people out on the streets making your voice heard, or maybe you are educating yourself and sharing your knowledge with others. However you are expressing yourself, to be fully effective in anything you are doing, you need to fill your own cup first.
Advocating for change, expressing your thoughts, opinions and beliefs takes great effort emotionally.
To come from a place of strength in our actions allows us to be at our most creative and productive. Feeling weighed down from the negative state of your country, prevents you from inspired action. Anything you try to accomplish from that place feels hard – impossible even – and takes great effort. But when you recharge your being first, you allow yourself to give more to others and your world; a space from which you can take inspired action. The result is that your accomplishments exceed your expectations.
Some of you might be empaths, feeling deeply the upheaval around you. For you especially, it is most important that you take time and focus on YOU, along with your personal emotional needs.
Then there are some who are on the path to recovery from traumatic experiences. This anger about current issues can bring up old wounds, past fears and especially send you spiraling to dark places. It is vital for those of us healing to separate how we feel from what is happening around us.
Take a specified amount of time each day, whatever you feel is right for you personally (as this will differ person to person), and do at least one practice that allows you to put yourself in balance again.
Here are a few ideas of practices that quickly and effectively settle your emotional state:
- Meditation – there are plenty of meditations freely available. I have created a
meditation to bring peace and balance to the listener. Click here for free access. - Breathing – there are various breathing techniques to calm you and re-center Here is a simple exercise. Sit comfortably, close your eyes, and exhale completely. Then inhale for a count of 8 seconds. As you are breathing in, allow peace, calm and balance to flow into you. Then exhale for a count of 8 seconds, releasing any stress, anxiety, fear and anger. Repeat this process until you feel centered and balanced. If 8 seconds is too long, start with 4 seconds at first. Breathing is one of the quickest ways to calm the body and mind, and relax the nervous system. You can do this anywhere, anytime.
- Taking a walk – walk around, truly observing your surroundings, focus completely on your walk. Listen to the birds and creatures, feel the sun or wind on your skin, feel the ground beneath your feet, take deep breaths of fresh air. Empty your mind. If you find your attention and thoughts drawn back to your worries, then stop and refocus on your surroundings. With every step you take, observe something new. This relaxed focus will help to re-center you.
- Crafting – do some painting, drawing, or any other type of craft that relaxes and invigorates you.
- Mundane, repetitive actions – chopping vegetables or folding laundry can be a quick stress reliever for some. The repetitive mindless action means that you can give your brain time to work though whatever is bothering you.
You may have another effective practice.
What practice do you find works best for you? Leave your answer in the comments below.
Be Well, Be Blessed
Santa
