The news, social media, the reality we find ourselves in, is a hellscape right now. It can be easy to feel that the only option is to live in a state of fear, anxiety and overwhelm.
Our emotions can be perceived as overwhelming. Many experience empathy for the suffering and fear of the other to an extent where to go about their day-to-day in any state other than one of hyper-arousal, anxious, angry, confused and unable to know what to do, feels unacceptable.
“What can I do?” is a question that is heard from the mouths of many. I would never ever take a position that prescribed an answer.
But, if you can soothe yourself, if you can regulate your emotions, and if you can step out of the fear of what is to come, you can offer your hand from a very different place.
Free Trigger Triage Download
Below I share 3, extremely simple, tools that you can use every day in order to quickly, yet gently, land in your body and approach things differently. If you would like to explore more of the practices as tools for navigating challenging times, do join a class.
Plus, if you have not downloaded my free Trigger Triage sequence, please do! This is what I may do in the room if someone was freaking out, as a trauma therapist.
This sequence resets the stress system to neutral. You can download that here:
1. Breath to Manage the Mind
Sit tall and straight. Close your eyes. Relax your face, your shoulders… choose to allow them to soften. Then, simply, gently, inhale through tight lips, pause, and then gently exhale through the nose. Do this for two to three minutes then stay soft, allow the breath to regulate itself, and notice the change in how you feel.
2. Flex your Spine
Spinal Flex is a gentle, elegant posture that works quickly to change how you feel. It releases contractions in the upper body, stretch open the chest, allow you to connect with your breath and releases the vagus nerve. When imbued with the intention to release fear, with the massaging of the kidneys and adrenals, the posture can make a huge change to how you experience your reality.
Sit cross legged, holding your shins, or kneeling, holding your knees. Eyes closed. Inhale and push forward, stretching open the chest, raising the chin, bringing the shoulder blades together. Then exhale, and curl back, dropping your chin to your chest, opening the shoulders and creating space between the vertebrate.
Keep the movement slow. Practice for three minutes. The posture massages the intestinal organs which changes hormonal flow in the body by releasing serotonin. At the end, lie back, be soft. Notice how you feel.
3. Practise Gratitude
A daily gratitude practice creates a huge shift in perception and can be a way to ‘trick’ yourself into landing in presence. You cannot be grateful in the pain of the past or the fear of the future.
Whatever you want to do to support yourself or the other, if you want to protest, campaign, make change, to take time to write a gratitude list at the start of your day will allow you to approach your action from the ‘right here, right now.’
From presence, from a place of emotional regulation, you are likely to find that the action you take is more considered and that you are able to maintain your sense of self, keep up with your own needs, and create more change than action would be that is inspired by anxiety and fear.
Stretching, Consciously Breathing… They Help
Any practise that allows you to take over your stress system and become softer, more gentle, more present, will help you in navigating challenging times. It may seem that to help yourself is not top of your list of priorities at such times, but to do so will allow for you to offer your hand in a more potent way.
Releasing Fear and Overwhelm
This relentless fear mongering, the endless apocalypse fatigue, turgid dreams and social media are all very wearing one the sense of humour, the ability to be still.
Come and breathe on Monday mornings at 6am. We are well-versed in the bliss of putting it all down for 30 minutes.
Beginning Monday 24th October for 6 weeks.
