Starting The Day Off Right
I was anxious and overwhelmed. Every. Single. Day.
If you know me at all high performance and high stress are synonymous with my life. That isn’t unique or unusual. In fact it’s kinda become the norm. With all the technology and life hacks we have( a.k.a. Washing machines and refrigerators that make grocery lists for you), it’s more uncommon to find someone that is totally zen and not living off the grid.
I don’t have it all figured out but I have discovered some really basic things that help keep me from spinning on overwhelm and toxic talk tract. Spoiler alert. I don’t meditate all day to do it either.
The biggest 2 things that have helped me the MOST are setting a positive intention for the day and doing a 5 minute meditation before I do anything else.
What does this look like? Well, when my alarm goes off, I don’t reach for any sort of technology at all, I actually use the snooze feature to make sure I don’t spend too much time on this. I get out of bed, and yes there is more stretching that happens to make that happen as I get older but that’s for another time, stand firmly on my feet standing up straight and take a few deep breaths.
Standing meditation for me looks like a saguaro cactus, I place my arms out the sides at shoulder level and bend my elbows so that my fingers are pointed straight up to the ceiling with palms facing forward. Rolling shoulders down and back I take 4 deep squared breaths and then do a 5 minute standing meditation.
The focus of the meditation is releasing any tension and negative talk, stopping the chronic list of things you need to do, or negative talk because you didn’t get something done yesterday. Find a mantra that works for you but make sure it sets the way you WANT your day to go and not what you DON’T. One that works well for me is: I align with all that is of the highest good for me and all involved with my day.
All things will go easily for me today. I respond calmly in all situations.
Don’t know what a squared breath is? See this post. Breathing to put you back in control of your emotions.