When you are going 100 miles an hour, trying to be the perfect mom, spouse, leader, and mentor, it can be difficult to recenter yourself and calm your nerves. But, if you don’t find proactive ways to do so, most of us will end up exploding at the wrong moment, yelling at our children or losing it in the middle of a meeting. Neither of which we ever want.
So, before I even share ideas on how to center yourself, I’d love for you to realize that in order for you to stay centered you must continuously work on centering yourself. That means that after every stressor – whatever that is – you take a moment to recover.
Now, for you, that might feel like a lot. If you don’t feel you can take the moment after every stressful situation, will you at least take time once in between or at the end of your day? Give yourself a chance to let go of your built-up anxiety.
If you need further convincing, please consider the risks associated with not practicing self-care. Your health must be your priority. Make it one today rather than being forced to make it one later down the road.
1. Breathing
By repeatedly deeply inhaling and fully exhaling, the movement of your diaphragm triggers a message to the brain that all is well with you. This reduces and can even stop the production of adrenaline and cortisol which increase inflammation in the body leading to disease.
Breathing calms down your mind and even 4-5 cycles of deep breathing may be all you need to feel at peace again.
2. Gratitude
When we are stressed, our focus is placed on all those things that cause the stress in the first place. We narrow in on what’s wrong, where we fall short, or how the rest of the world seems to have it out on us.
An intentional gratitude practice allows you to shift your focus to all those things that go well, and to find a moment of JOY and appreciation. A repeated gratitude practice even alters your brain structure, making you a more positive person every time you practice. If you’re interested, there is a lot of science behind the immense effects of gratitude.
3. Peace & Quiet
For someone as busy as you, solitude is one of the most effective ways to quiet the mind. To do so you have many choices. My personal favorites are doing short meditations, listening to calming music, or simply grabbing a cup of tea and sit in silence.
A meditation practice is actually one of the most profound ways to calm the mind. It’s worth every minute you spend sitting in silence as it has tremendous effects on your mind and brain health.
4. Nature
Did you know that in clinical studies, it has been proven that 2 hours of nature sounds a day significantly reduces stress hormones up to 800% and activates 500-600 DNA segments known to be responsible for healing and repairing the body.
Nature enhances the mood and simply calms you down. Spending time listening to nature sounds or being in nature gives us greater focus and peace. And, it’s a great catalyst for finding your center.
5. Zoom out – See the big picture
When we are stressed, we tend to narrowly focus on the problems at hand. Zooming out allows you to see the big picture. This vantage point helps you see that what you are worrying about is actually quite minor compared to what’s really important to you in life.
Is that one bad meeting really going to derail your career? Is your daughter’s push back really a sign that you are a bad parent? No. Zoom out and see the bigger picture.
6. Zoom in - what’s important now
As said, most often when we are stressed, we tend to focus on the problem. Can you consciously shift your focus on what really needs your attention? Not everything is urgent. While our go-go-go mentality leads us to produce non-stop, you will find yourself much more centered when you bring attention to the important things.
Crowd out the noise of all the other small stuff that wants to throw you off balance and zoom in on what’s really important now.
7. Have faith
Faith is a word that brings up different emotions for different people. To be clear when I talk about faith, I don’t mean being religious or having to follow a certain religion. According to Oxford dictionary, faith is a complete trust or confidence in someone or something. For you that might be God, others may refer to as ‘Source’, ‘Infinite Being’, the Divine source, or Buddha.
Faith allows us to bring our burdens to this higher power. For me, I find hope in believing there’s a purpose in my struggle. We know from experience that our past challenges were growth opportunities that brought us to be exactly where we are today. With that said, can you trust that your current challenges are the seeds of a better future?
Finding peace in faith is a beautiful way to recenter yourself. Can faith heal you? Science shows, it definitely has an impact on your health..
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