Lessons from the Whale
January is a great time to consider the wisdom of the whale. They are a totem of the “great mystery” of life, and are thought of as the earth’s record keepers of all time, which is perhaps a purposeful reflection for the new year, especially if you are already struggling to maintain new year intentions, or just struggling to find peace in the ever shifting state of the world.
3 Strategies to Manage Stress During Change & Transition
Transitions can bring an erratic energy and can challenge our inner sense of stability and security. Our brain is a survival based organ and it likes to maintain a sense of homeostasis, which means it likes things to stay constant. Some of our brains cling to that more strongly than others. And yet change is a constant. Day to day, week to week, season by season, year by year. We age daily; relationships, jobs, finances all fluctuate; our interests may shift; and certainly our needs change with time, just to name a few. We have both internal and external changes every day.
Oh Funk! 3 Steps to Shift Your Mood
It’s important to understand how you respond to yourself when feeling down. A typical response is to get into a state of resistance or struggle out of not liking it or thinking it should be different. Resistance is often fueled by the judging mind, which quickly amplifies the experience of negative emotion by placing labels of right/wrong, fair/unfair, should/shouldn’t, like/dislike, or good/bad.
Cultivating Resilience: Facing Uncertainty
In reality, uncertainty is a constant. However, we are facing more uncertainty than we are used to, and our minds are more focused on the presence of unknowns than is typical. This can easily create stress, struggle, and even anxiety or fear. I hear this in comments like, “What if I can’t … (go on vacation, go to college, ..),” “What will I do if … (my parents get sick, I can’t pay my bills),” “When will life go back to normal,” “I’m so over this,” and “Why can’t I focus? I’m not getting anything done.” Such thoughts and concerns are understandable.
Cultivating Resilience in Times of Crisis
Tuning into and enhancing resilience is essential to fostering wellbeing, especially during times of significant stress. In fact, focusing on resilience can reduce our stress response. And reducing stress enhances our immune system and supports our bodies to ward off illness! This benefits our physical, mental and emotional health.
Are you a human being or a human doing?
Do you find yourself on overdrive most of the time? You move from one activity or task to the next, you have a never-ending to-do list, find it hard to relax, your mind races trying to keep up with it all, and despite your utter exhaustion, you just can’t slow down and take a break.
This can be a symptom of chronic stress and burnout.