20231018 - Sitting With The Body

When we feel afraid or stressed we tend to move up into our head and lose touch with reality. Our mind become threat focused and go into negative thought patterns such as rumination and catastrophizing. Time tends to feel like a very scarce resource and everything needs to happen now! We tend to prioritise the wrong things because everything seems equally important. I’m sure you recognise stressing a lot over something that seemed like you would never be able to finish with “everything else that is going on” and then later on when you feel calmer it turned out to be the simplest thing. The bad news is that all of those symptoms lead to more stress and more fear, which then creates a negative spiral. The good news is that we can break this spiral and dispel the illusion that our mind is creating by consciously choosing to focus on the Here and Now. Some examples: - Focus on how the feet feel against the floor for one minute - Take five slow and deep breaths - A cold shower - Exercise - Name five things you see, hear, sense, smell and taste