You......Yes You......Stop What You Are Doing

Do you know what resources you and how you can look after yourself?

Life is busy enough and then suddenly an extra project or having to care of someone lands on the workbench of our lives.

So how do we ‘cope’ with this?

Well, in my own experience as well as working as a therapeutic counsellor, many of us tend to drop those activities that keeps us feeling balanced and well.

So, what would that be for you?

Going to the gym, taking a tea break, going for a leisurely walk, chatting on the phone with a friend? In practical terms, we only have so much time each day however, by dropping those sustainable, soothing and socially connected activities, we often spiral downwards into exhaustion and overwhelm. Perhaps you can relate to that feeling of thoughts speeding up, tight chest, lurching feeling in your stomach, heart racing and a nice headache to boot!

So, what can we do about it?

Well, the first step is becoming aware that we are feeling overwhelmed. That might look like disturbed sleep or feeling more tired and irritable.

The solution?

Well, offering ourselves just a teeny-weeny little bit of kindness and making time to give ourselves something that we need.

Ask yourself ‘what do I need right now?

Now, it might not be practical to take two hours out to go to the gym, but you could take just ten minutes to give yourself permission to sit and drink a cup of tea, go for a short slow walk or call a friend. We can then, slowly but surely, begin to reverse the overwhelm and start the learning process of how we can best care for and resource ourselves.

Here is a short practice that can help to bring us back into the here and now, to begin to work with the tendency for things to speed up and address that feeling of overwhelm.