Coping with Holiday Stress Especially if You are Energetically Sensitive #3 (Series)

You have the power within you to accomplish endless things – love, understanding, and healing being some of the most powerful. Now let’s us learn to use those powers on yourself.

 

Meditate. Meditation is amazingly restorative. It is also clarifying and renewing. If you know you have a stressful day coming up or just had to deal with some unexpected drama, then take a few minutes – as few as 3-5 minutes can really help. For those of you who think they can’t clear their minds… count your breaths. You are physically incapable of processing more than one thought at a time, so if you are focused on your breath – the door is closed to other “stuff”.  I like to breathe in to the count of 4, hold for 4 and exhale to the count of 8. Another approach is to breathe normally and just count how many times your exhale. Set the timer on your phone for 3-5 minutes or even 10 if you have the time and start breathing.

 

The breathing really helps too, but that’s just a plus for the purposes of this article. Meditation can clear your mind and your thinking and really help cleanse the junk in your energy field. For a crash course in meditation, I recommend Bernadette Kozlowski from Light Your Fire Meditation.

 

“In Jami’s first holiday blog post she said “Whatever your choice to honor your soul and body, make sure to enjoy every moment of it.”

 

To help you do this, I’d love to share two exercises with you! The first will help you to honor yourself by allowing rest and the second will help you to be more present to life and meditation by opening your senses, enriching both your inner and outer worlds.

 

In the FIRST exercise, give yourself permission to take care of yourself, to stop and recharge your batteries. At first this is harder than it would seem. Why??? We are a society of go-getters, no pain no gain, you rest you rust… if we rest, someone else will beat us to something.   Pause here and set a timer for one minute. Say to yourself “I give myself permission to rest.” This is not an intellectual exercise but something you need to feel in your gut in order for it be effective. Before reading ahead, set your timer, give yourself permission, and simply notice what happens.

 

Did you feel your body shift or drop into a relaxed mode? Welcome that and feel empowered.  Did you have thoughts? Totally normal.  You live a complex life in a complex world. It’s no wonder that racing minds often join you for meditation. As part of your meditation, you’ll have thoughts about your loved ones, about work, about the person who cut you off in traffic today, or a dilemma you are facing.  Sometimes when you meditate, you’ll have many thoughts. Other times, you’ll feel like your mind is blank. The trick to being a healthy long-term mediator is to welcome both of those states of mind equally and gently.   Did you feel guilty or anxious? Totally normal.  The guilt comes from our cultural mindset against rest. The anxiety may pop up because when we relax, whatever we are stressed about comes up to be reviewed or processed. Once you welcome all that arises, with no sense of effort, dropping into a deeper state will be much easier.

 

It’s like being on vacation and sitting on your favorite beach and having a thought float in about something at home and you just don’t have to actively do anything about it at the moment.  Be careful about trying to block thoughts or push them away or even put them in balloons and let them float away. This implies that thoughts or emotions are not part of us and should not be part of our meditation. Welcome all parts of yourself to meditation for a healthier mindset.

Many people never start meditating because they feel their mind races and many others start to mediate and stop in frustration because they can’t empty their minds. If you simply accept thoughts as part of your meditation, not something to get through in order to meditate, you won’t spend your meditation time battling your thoughts. Instead you’ll know one of the secrets of healthy mediators—welcome thoughts, emotions, & sensations as part of your meditation, not something you have to get past in order to meditate.

 

Meditation is about preparing us for life, so welcoming all of your life into your meditation. Considering this welcoming approach to meditation, set your timer for another minute “I give myself permission to rest… I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations…I welcome all without judgement. “Notice the difference when you have this mindset that is friendlier to yourself.  This is a great exercise to practice over the course of the day, especially as your transition from home to work, or before a phone call, or between projects.

 

The SECOND exercise is a salute to your senses to more present in the moment, making your meditation as well as your day to day life richer. Meditation is resting in gentle awareness. We are aware through our senses.   You can practice this by picking a memory of your favorite place to be in a natural state of rest. Might be from your childhood or just last week. Can be a very simple experience or something profound. Pick one of those memories and place yourself back in that setting and walk through your senses without forcing anything. Some senses will feel richer than others. Stay with each sense for as long as you’d like. I am aware of seeing………  I am aware of hearing…… I am aware of smelling….. I am aware of tasting….. I am aware of touching or being touched by……I am aware of the temperature of…. I am aware of the motion of….  Then return to which ever sense you enjoyed the most and rest there a little longer or treat the scene like a symphony, taking it all in….

 

Meditation is resting in awareness. First, allow yourself to REST. Then become more aware by practicing opening your SENSES through a favorite memory, or on a walk, or looking out a window, or before enjoying meal. Meditation is a vibrant experience, and practicing opening your senses everyday will enrich your inner and outer worlds.”