Your BEST defense to practice during this crazy time
How often do you pause long enough to really get that you feel your thinking?
Have a shitty, scary, stressful, or worrisome thought and your body, without fail, gives you the corresponding shitty, scary, stressful, or worrisome feeling.
Those feelings are anything from constricted breathing, a tight stomach or chest, headache, nausea, fatigue, rapid heartbeat, etc.
This is your body’s natural response to perceived or real thought threats.
How many stressful or worrisome thoughts do you think during the course of a week? A day? An hour?
How much energy are you having your body expend to generate the corresponding feelings?
How many of your worrisome and stressful thoughts have come true? If you're like me, probably not many. However...
It's kind of a trick question. The more you focus on stressful and worrisome thoughts the greater likelihood they could come true since what you focus on grows, you subconsciously look for evidence to support what you’re focused on, and your energy (what you feel) responds accordingly.
And worrisome energy breaks you down. It taxes your immune system because you’re producing cortisol for prolonged periods of time.
This stress hormone is helpful in short-term situations (it gives you adrenaline to fight or flee when there’s real danger) but when you’re just thinking about worrisome or ‘what-if’ potentially dangerous situations the cortisol is left to linger and build up. That’s when your immune system starts breaking down.
What is your best defense to practice during this crazy time? Mind management.
Here’s how:
Be aware!
What are the thoughts playing in your head throughout the day? Start paying attention!
Are you what-ifing, worrying, stressing?
What goes on in your body when you think of these thoughts?
Where does your energy go?
Be proactive!
How would you rather manage your mind?
What are thoughts that keep you grounded or feeling more hopeful (or at least neutral)?
What thoughts help you to take a small action that makes you feel more empowered?
What goes on in your body when you think these better thoughts?
Where does your energy go?
Take action!
You have the power to take action! This snaps you out of worrisome thought habits and it’s the best thing to bring down cortisol and disburse adrenaline so that your immune system can function at its best.
I’ve written about this lately — WTA!
When you hear yourself getting caught up in worrisome thought loops, Then take an Action asap!
A power walk or run, jumping jacks, deep forceful breaths, push-ups, etc. It doesn’t have to take up a lot of time either. Even a couple minutes does wonders to reset your mind and your system so you feel more grounded, relaxed, and receptive to more productive thoughts.
Can I help?
Do you want to talk through anything? Need an action plan? I want to help! Here's a link to schedule a 30-minute session with me. It's something I am happy to do and it comes with no strings.
I am great at helping to put things into perspective and sending you on your way feeling empowered to implement a workable plan.
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Bonus!
Get the tool I use every time my current situation feels heavy, stressful, or icky. It works like a champ to quickly turn it around and I am confident it will do that for you too. Get it here.