What do you do when you are stressed? I mean really stressed, almost to the point of ‘over-load’? Maybe you are lucky enough to be able to meet a friend and off-load all your troubles. Perhaps you turn to that bottle of wine, or chocolate, cigarettes or some other ‘soothing’ but addictive substance.
You might be one of the sensible ones who goes for a run, walks the dog, enjoys a massage or swim – something a little more self-loving.
Whatever your reactions to stress, and possible solutions, I can assure you of one thing …. you’re blood pressure goes up, your breathing becomes more shallow and rapid, you will most certainly become exhausted, perhaps emotional, and you undoubtedly feel ungrounded. Yes, stress is an awful – and real – aspect of modern life.
Well, I’ve been studying the reactions in my own body to extreme stress recently, and guess what, it affects us all in the same way. That is until we decide to change the way we react. We choose to respond differently to the triggers. When things are tough our brain response is an ancient mechanism which enables us to flee or to stand and fight – or even to freeze to the spot. This human reaction is ‘built in’ to our chemical framework, but we can change things when we become aware of it, we so often forget we have a choice.
A- We can become more AWARE of the signs and how we feel in our body.
B- We can allow ourself to simply BE in each moment by giving our self permission just to be still. To BREATHE.
C- We can CONSCIOUSLY choose a different response than our usual spontaneous reaction.
I thought about this as an appropriately helpful acronym that we can all use. Something we are already used to calling upon to help us all. We can co-create another angelic helper. An angel to help with stress and we can all call on this angel, this one is in our own mind!
A – Become AWARE of how you are feeling. What is going on around you.
N – NOTICE your body, how is it responding to stress? Notice how you care breathing. tension in the muscles, any tightness of your neck and jaw.
G – GENTLY take your self out of the situation, even if momentarily. Be still and take some deep and steady breaths. Be kind to yourself.
E – ENGAGE with your own feelings, breathing and body. Relax your muscles and mentally distance yourself from the drama.
L– Learn to be a little more LOVING to your self.
We all suffer from modern life and the majority of us couldn’t possibly escape from that. But we can learn to do things a little differently to soothe our mind, body and soul. The biggest and most affective of all the solutions is to meditate, and in that space (whether ten minutes or longer) you will gain calm. You may even gain useful insight too, and perhaps angelic guidance as to how to change your other aspects within your circumstances.
Whatever you choose, do try the Angel of Mindfulness acronym. Let me know how you get on, I’m always pleased to hear if any of my suggestions help my readers.
Blessings and Love.
