If you are living in the United States right now, you *might* be feeling stressed out.
I say this tongue-in-cheek, because I know that I’ve had a difficult time moving through my life and the world since America’s Inauguration Day a month ago.
Regardless of where you stand politically, the sheer amount of information coming in is overwhelming. The uncertainty of governmental shifts – many of which affect our everyday lives – is unprecedented.
What does this feel like for you? For me, it feels like fatigue, irritability, desire to escape, tight focus on what needs to get done, a desire to help others, determination, rest…
And sometimes I feel my nervous system shift into fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. Other times, I feel the anxiety climb up into my throat and threaten a full panic attack.
One question that has been coming up with many of my clients is:
So what do we do? What can we do to help calm our nervous systems and feel some relief?
Practice Makes Precision
Unless I am very sick, I make sure to do four things EVERY SINGLE DAY:
- Drink water and eat protein
- Move my body
- Take my meds
- Rest / sleep
So much of trauma recovery, grief recovery, and good mental health is practice, practice, practice.
Why?
Because when the proverbial crap hits the fan, our logical and learning brain goes off-line. Forget planning, decision-making, organizing, and judgement. Those skills are in the break room, having lunch together.
We cannot think when we are in a crisis or in survival mode.
In a crisis or survival mode, we rely on what we have practiced.
The Good News: Small Amounts of Practice Reduce Stress
This is why it’s important to practice the behaviors we want when we are (relatively) not in crisis or survival mode – then we can count on them when we need them.
But what if you haven’t done that practicing yet? No time like the present. Start now.
Do you have to do A LOT of practicing? Nope. Any amount counts!
What’s the most IMPORTANT skill to practice? I’m so glad you asked!
The #1 Good Mental Health Skill to Reduce Stress
Here is the one absolutely positively supercalafragilisticexpealodoshus good thing that you can do for your mental health ~
This #1 skill lets you:
- Feel connected to yourself and your loved ones
- Stop reacting and instead choose how you want to respond
- Help rewire your brain for the positive
- Experience calm by activating the parasympathetic (aka rest and digest) part of the nervous system
- Make clearer decisions
- Focus attention and thinking, leading to greater productivity
- Lift your overall mood
- Reduce harmful hormones related to stress (like cortisol), as well as reducing anxiety and depression symptoms
Learning this #1 skill is like baking a cake from scratch or playing Texas hold em – simple in theory but takes time and practice to master.
The good news is that this one good thing is easy to practice.
And that #1 skill is to regulate your nervous system is to BREATHE
Here are two breathing exercises – one for when you’re in the shnizz and one for when you are not in the shnizz.
1. Practice when you don’t need them so that you can use them when you DO need them.
2. Practice by yourself or with a guided video or audio file.
4-7-8 Breathing Exercise
Here’s a good one for highly stressful situations –
This is a good one to use anytime, especially when you’re going about your day and notice that you are feeling stressed, tense, and/or overwhelmed.
Box Breathing Exercise
Practicing ONE of these breathing exercises can *easily* put a sense of calm into your every day life!
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