Have you ever asked yourself, "Why can't I seem to find peace in my life?"
No matter what the case is, we all need and deserve peace. It may seem impossible to achieve, but it doesn't have to be. Anything is possible, when we start to Zone In. What does this mean? Keep reading!
I have had countless people reach out asking for help with their Anxiety. Many of them are searching for ways alleviate daily distress, and find healthier ways to juggle life. They have tried other methods, but didn't get anywhere. Not everyone wants or needs conventional therapy. Not everyone wants or needs a diagnosis of any kind. Not everyone wants or needs medication. Sometimes, people just need a comfortable place to sort things out and grow. However, there are plenty of situations that do require traditional therapy and medication. What I'm getting at, is that there's many options and ways for people to get support. Traditional Holistic coaching methods, as well as Yoga and Ayurveda, can offer tremendous support, and be a transformational experience, if it's a suitable fit. You might ask, "How?" Well, one of my favorite things about Yoga, Ayurveda and holistic health, is that we don't refer to a person with a name of a disease. For example, in Ayurveda, when people come with Anxiety, they aren't labeled as that, nor is it our role to provide a label. We explain, that it's most likely a Vata imbalance that needs to be regulated. We dive deep into the layers to discover ourselves. My client's will tell you, it's hard work, but the the reward is priceless. Not only, will you find sanity and peace, but you will get your life back.
Anxiety can be confusing to recognize sometimes, especially if it's been a life long thing. It can become so normalized, until something triggers you to look into it.
Let me know if this sounds familiar....
Do you wake up every morning with your brain going 100 miles per hour? Are you in "GO" mode from the minute you open your eyes. In fact, you could almost sleep with your eyes open because sleep is nearly impossible. Your brain just can't seem to shut off. Your thoughts are all over, from work, to finances, to family, to cleaning the house and on and on.
You are very aware that you are battling anxiety on a daily basis, but you do your best to hide it, especially at work. You put your game face on every day! You know this is taking a toll on you. It's compromising your health, your quality of life, and all of your relationships, but you don't know what to do about it. You have tried reading books about it, you've tried to calm down, but nothing seems to help.
You also can't afford to stop. There's just too much on your plate and no time to take care of yourself. You tell yourself that as long as you focus, you can keep your anxiety under control. On one hand being busy, or emersed in work 24/7 seems to be the best way to carry on. It's a good distraction, and a place to put all of your energy. It can create feelings of accomplishment. However, it' can also cause burn out, leaving you feeling like you can't come up for air. Yet, there seems to be no solution to stop the endless cycle. Then, the minute you divert your focus from what your are emersed in, it feels like a pipe inside of you is going to burst. You say to yourself, "Not now, gotta keep it together, there's no time for this." So, you continue to carry on as usual.
By the end of the day you are fried. It takes every ounce of energy to get through the day, and every day is the same cycle. Put on that poker face and do it all over again, and again. Meanwhile, deep down inside, there's a voice saying, "How much longer are you going to go on like this?"
Your body is sending you messages in the form of exhaustion, irritability, unexplainable aches or stomach upset, headaches and all sorts of things. You ignore it all and keep going.
As time goes on, you continue to loose the energy and the desire to connect with loved ones, but you still don't know what to do about it. Life is passing by, and the weight of this is dragging you down into a bigger and bigger hole. You try things, but then you stop. You try something else, and stop again. What to do?
Anxiety shows up in many forms, and it can change over time. Sometimes, it's like having an out of body experience, which leads to questions like, "Who am I." It can feel like impostor syndrome. It can even leave you feeling completely disconnected from yourself, or leave you feeling like a fraud. We can find ourselves hiding from people, and the world. In many cases the person we are hiding from is ourselves. So, how do we find ourselves?
No matter what your scenario is, the first thing to do is to give yourself the opportunity to get some space to figure things out. If that voice inside of you is saying, "I want to live in a different way," here's your chance. Many of us are going from a full-speed job environment to a full-speed home environment, with no breaks in between. It's very necessary to create a healthy pause somewhere in your life. Without making some time to get connected with yourself, very little will change. Starting is always the hardest part. Once you've made the commitment to yourself, the rest falls into place.
Try these 3 simple tips for that quiet time when you get home…
1. Instead of Zoning Out...Zone In. The first thing we often want to do is to escape, or zone out. We run into TV land or dive into a book, or even over indulge in food or alcohol, or whatever the method of zone out is. I'm not suggesting that you can't do these things, but just shift your priorities a bit.
Put a pause on the zone out and try this first.....tell your family you need 30 minutes of alone time as soon as you get home. Create a space that you can retreat to for this time.
2. Now this doesn’t mean, you get 30 minutes to play on your phone, answer work emails, or watch a quick episode of something. This means you have 30 minutes to “Zone In” to yourself. What the heck does that mean??? I’m gonna tell you. That means you start by checking in with yourself…what’s up, what do I need right now…Ask yourself, how does my body feel? How does my mind feel? What does my body need? What does my mind need? What do I need to I need to take care of myself? Am is feeling restless, angry, sad, tired? This is a full 30 minutes of time that you get to be with yourself, and only yourself. Relaxing music could help here, but that's it. Only relaxing music, soft lighting, and maybe some short journaling, if that comes natural. This can be awfully frightening for some, because we Zone out to avoid Zoning in. Zone out is our "Go to." If 30 minutes feels like eternity, start with 15 minutes and work your way up to 30. Take a look at your day to day routine. Are you going from 100 miles an hour to Zone out?
3. Next do this…just breathe. I don’t care if you are standing, sitting, laying down…it doesn’t matter as long as you are comfortable and you are in your special space so you can just breathe. OK…now notice how you are breathing…is it heavy, shallow, forced, choppy? Don’t change anything, just notice what's happening… Then stretch your arms up on the inhale and down on the exhale. Do this 10 times slow. If the relaxing music is working for you, then keep it on while you are doing this. Then pick your knees up into your chest, alternating legs. Try to do this every single day for 10 days, and let me know how it goes. If you have any questions, please reach out or send me an email.
This simple practice can be very powerful! Don't underestimate the time spent on "Zoning In." It can be transformational, if you are feeling it. It can also be the best part of your day, or an excellent way to practice self-care. In any case, "Zoning In" is the first step to finding peace in your life. It's also the first step to connecting to your authentic self. The stress of people pleasing, seeking approval or validation, and needing to "Fit in," is detrimental in so many ways. Living life to keep up with a persona that was created for you, by either your parents, family, peers, or yourself, will leave you living a life of constantly working to keep this self image alive. It's an endless struggle. Stress, anxiety and sadness are often created by the separation between our authentic selves and un-authentic selves.
"Zoning In" is the first step to help bridge this separation. Everyone can benefit from this.
If you found this helpful, great! Keep doing this! The next step is to try my 3 part virtual course coming up, on how to manage stress and anxiety. I say this all the time...."The most important thing to do is to do something...and do it with some level of consistency." It doesn't have to be big, but it has to be consistent.
May we all be free!!
~ Leelah Lakshmi ~
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