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- Friday Inspiration April 21
Catch My New article and others on MEDIUM!
A teaser for you:
Tonight I woke up, mind busily working away at it’s problems pertaining to family, connection and judgements that seriously just kill a relationship…I got sad, shed a tear. And when that got too much, being thrust into that hopeless pit of despair…
It’s hard to find out of a rut and to a new plateau of experience when you are frozen in fear. It’s paralyzing and frustrating because you are smart person yet something just won’t budge.
Others might be getting tired of your “stuckness” and becoming disagreeable or hostile to your plight. And that doesn’t help you feel any better, and might even make your stresses worse, because you want to get along, feel connected and loved.
So, what is happening here and how can you fix it?
First of all, what is happening when you get in a rut is your system is frozen. Quite literally but it’s not your fault. It’s the way the body is designed, but you can hack it and move through the frozen experience.
Let’s get into the why you are frozen: The brain and body are designed from millennia of surviving the elements and big beasts roaming the plains and forests. Part of that surviving includes Fight, Flight and Freeze.
When we see a big beast (or huge task, or a property tax you have to pay or 500 things on your desk that needs to be done yesterday, or medical issues for you or family, or even ALL of the above and more) some might be calm cool and collected about it and la de da, take one thing at a time and manage quite well. And that’s fabulous for them!
But, what about when your brain starts to get overwhelmed and freeze?
Your higher executive brain function gets cut off from all communications and is on pause, while your reptilian brain (at the base of the skull) kicks into high gear. Your sympathetic nervous system is on alert now. Defenses go up, and we hunker down into survival mode.
And it’s great when there is a big beast, and you know to just climb a tree, wait it out an hour or so, but what about prolonged stress? Life needs you, your family needs you and that stress and lack of sleep is wearing you down. Focus is going down the drain quickly. You need to make a change.
You need to press the reset button basically, to restart your system!
It’s done in a few ways. Try these one at a time, see which one works for you, and use whenever you need it. Find your favorite.
The Great Reset:
Take two breaths in, and one long breath out. It may cause a yawn, which can be indicative of your parasympathetic (big word, I know) nervous system resetting.
Put your hands crossed on your chest, where your hands then rest below the clavicle. then, like a butterfly, tap one hand at a time on your chest. Do this for a minute or so.
Hug someone for at least 20 seconds. Heart to heart is best. The squeeze calms us down, and the other person’s electromagnetic field helps ours out, as well.
Take a 15 minute walk in nature and look at everything, mentally describe everything. The exercise will get your blood flowing, the grounding will help alleviate some stress, the being in nature, with its sounds, smells, and energy will help shift your focus elsewhere for a while.
TIPS to get back to Higher Executive Functions:
Once you have found some calm, let’s get into some action!
Write down your worries and things you need to get done.
🚀This is KEY to helping prevent you from making mountains out of what might be molehills.
If there are action items, then put them in a calendar, planner, online or paper, whatever works for you.
🚀This helps you get out of “everything has to be done NOW!” and then you can do one thing at a time. We can only do so much at once, didn’t you know?
Ask for help! Get family involved, friends, hire aspects out.
🚀I believe we honestly put too much on our plates and we feel we have to be perfect with all of it. Our brains actually can only hold onto 7 things a time. Give yourself a dose of reality and relax on your desire to be perfect all the time. I’ve tried it, and it is absolutely exhausting. Take that breath, and keep going. One step at a time.
Sometimes life is calm, and then sometimes life gets so overwhelming, where it feels like it’s coming all at once towards you. But remember, YOU are the gatekeeper of your sanity. YOU have the right to let the stress in, or not. You now have more tools to manage it better and put it in its place. You have the power to put emotions and the world in line. It’s not just ok, but absolutely necessary.
I believe in you.
Until Next Time,
