I read this statement the other day, written by Marc and Angel Chernoff* and I totally relate to this.
Whenever I feel overwhelmed, whenever emotions, or outer circumstances, threaten to take over,
I make my world smaller, I return to simple rituals.
For example.
When you wake up, and you feel as if all is too heavy to carry, and you think you’ll never make it through the day, start by taking a deep breath.
Don’t look too far into the day.
Stretch a few times. Breathe.
Just get out of bed, without thinking about what is to come.
Go and take your shower, enjoy the warm water running down your body.
Don’t think, just feel the sensation of soap and water.
The simple ritual of showering will already calm down your mind. Don’t let other thoughts take over.
Just be in the moment.
A calmer mind will already make you feel a bit stronger. You will feel more in control of your emotions, of what lies ahead.
Engaging in those little, simple things, will make the heavy stuff take a back seat. It’s still there, but it will feel less devastating.
The more you feel overwhelmed, the more you need to focus on every little ritual in your day. This will help you steady yourself.
Be, live every moment, consciously.
This will prevent you from spinning out of control, from getting lost in those tsunami-like, crushing, all-consuming, disaster thoughts.
Focus on the thing you’re doing right now.
Make sure you make every moment count.
When you are having a coffee, taste your coffee, enjoy the warm liquid, think of nothing else but your coffee.
Driving to work, same thing. Make it a pleasant journey. No matter what. Listen to some beautiful music, listen to a nice audiobook, or let silence wash over you. Just drive, and relax, no fretting.
When you do all those uplifting things consciously, without already worrying about the next meeting to come, without already getting irritated by a colleague that you haven’t even seen yet today, you are in a good place to start your day. No old emotions present, no fretting about things that haven’t even happened yet, and are very likely to never happen at all. Yes, we do worry and worry and worry, and 95% of all the things we worried about, NEVER actually happen……!
When you are vibrating on that frequency of an open mind, of possibilities, of solutions, … all the things that will come your way today, will feel different to you. They will feel less dramatic, less problematic because you engage with them from a different place.
And that will help with how you feel about your day.
The more you can calm your mind,
the more you can approach all situations from a place of solutions,
the more you are looking at other people as fellow human beings, instead of adversaries, …
the easier your day will feel, even though you will face the same problems as any other day.
The important thing is to be able to steady your mind, to be able to calm your mind, your emotions.
This you can do
by living very consciously,
by living in the moment,
by not thinking too far ahead,
by not wanting to be able to solve all matters in 1 day,
by focusing on one task at a time,
by having your simple rituals every day.
Not only in the morning but throughout the whole day.
Enjoy your lunch, take a little time to breathe, have some silence.
Take a few short breaks, even if it’s only a minute to focus on your breathing, or to hop outside for a sec.
When you come home at night, let go of the day.
Tomorrow is another day, time enough to worry then, there is absolutely no use for worrying about it all night. I love how Courtney Carver describes worrying:
“Worrying is like sitting in a rocking chair,
you keep moving back and forth
but it gets you nowhere.”
Have you evening ritual.
Relax.
No more screen time.
Write in your gratitude diary.
Do some breathing exercises.
Meditate.
Pray.
Make sure your bedroom is free from all kinds of clutter**, make sure you can breathe in the fresh night air.
Go to sleep.
Whenever thoughts are entering your mind, acknowledge them, but then say: I am not going to engage in them right now, there is nothing I can do right now. All I have to focus on right now, is to relax and to sleep. Tomorrow is another day.
The more you practice this, the better you’ll get at it.
Remember to make your world small.
Focus on little things, on the things you are doing right now.
Be completely present.
Don’t let your mind go all over the place, that will solve nothing. It will only cause more stress.
I wish you all a very calm mind, a very peaceful day, and you, being able to enjoy the little things.
Thank you all for reading me, and for supporting me on Medium. If you want unlimited access to all of my articles, and of many other authors, you can become a Medium Member. You’ll be supporting me and all the other authors. Many, many thanks to you all!!!
Katrien
*”1000+Little Things, Happy, Successful, People Do Differently.” By Marc and Angel Chernoff.
**”Less is Yes! Part 1, Chapter 2” by Katrien Degraeve.