Everyday life provides its stressors, and in the moment, it can be incredibly challenging to regulate your emotions and respond to stressful events in a balanced way. When you are unable to regulate your moods, you wind up more sensitive or reactive than normal. Stress can also manifest physically, causing inflammation in the body and leading to unhealthy lifestyle behaviors. Mindfulness and body-oriented therapies can help you stay in the present moment, thereby regulating your stress response. By integrating mindfulness practices into your daily life, you can help normalize your nervous system so that in times of distress, you can bring yourself back to baseline.
Mindfulness practices include:
- Breathwork: Gently inhale through your nose for 4 counts, hold your breath for 4 counts, then exhale through your nose for 4 counts. Pause for 4 counts, and then begin again. Continue this square breathing for a few minutes to help calm yourself.
- Observe: Be curious about your surroundings through your senses: smell, touch, sight, etc. The flower gazing meditation is one example of this. Look at a flower as if you are seeing it for the first time. Be curious of its shape, appreciate its beauty, and take in its sweet smell. When we slow down, we notice that nature is constantly providing us with moments of awe.
- Change Your Perception: Look up with your eyes until your vision changes. This takes you out of your experience and in doing so, helps you hit pause on your reaction. Having a moment to pause gives you space to think about your response before acting on it.
- Body Scan: Tense and release each of the muscles in your body, beginning with your toes all the way up to your face. Breathe into each of your muscles, one by one. On your inhalation, visualize yourself taking in whatever it is that you need in that moment (love, peace, happiness, hope, etc.) and when you release the muscle, exhale whatever you want to release (sadness, anger, anxiety, etc.)
- Movement: We hold on to stress and anxiety in our bodies. You can release these unwanted feelings by moving your body in whatever way feels good to you. This could be through walking, running, working out, or dancing. Just get moving and experience yourself releasing whatever is inside of you that you want to get rid of.
- Social Connection: We are wired for connection, and having a social network is incredibly helpful. Oftentimes, we feel as if we are alone when we are going through something. However, we are much more connected than we think. Embracing this sense of common humanity helps us cultivate self-compassion and allows us to connect with loved ones as well as strangers. This helps normalize times of stress, as we realize they are a part of the human experience. We heal through relationships; so call a friend or touch base with your therapist when you are feeling stressed or need support.
When you are triggered and your anxiety increases, your thoughtfulness decreases. You are taken out of your rational brain—the part that helps you regulate your emotions—and your emotional brain gets activated, which leads to intense emotional expression. But the good news is, your brain is neuroplastic. This means that it is dynamic, responsive to your actions, and capable of healing. Over time, mindfulness can literally change your brain! When practiced daily, mindfulness will help you deal with stress more effectively and experience more relaxation on a day-to-day basis.
This TedTalk discusses how neuroplasticity allows you to shape your brain, which could help you respond better to stress and anxiety!
