Tag: self care

it’s still the little things…

I’ve written before about how it’s often the little things that can brighten a day and bring a bit of joy. Little things that can help with continuing to go on, moment by moment, through the difficult days.

It’s the times of taking a walk – whether by myself, or with my husband, or with a friend and her dog. Enjoying the view, the fresh air, the moving of the body, the taking a deep breath and feeling more ease.

It’s the times spent in front of an easel or a journal, playing with paint and being in the moment. Not thinking or worrying, just moving the brush and the paint.

 

It’s the times enjoying the spring blooms. Seeing the beauty of nature. Appreciating the colors.

It’s the times of unexpected delights, like a new bloom on a potted plant that had seemed almost beyond hope until my husband did some sort of green-thumb renewal to bring it back to life.

There are other little things too, filling my days this spring in between my husband’s doctor visits and medical tests. Lots and lots of porch-sittin’ time, enjoying so many absolutely gorgeous days with feel-good temps we’ve had these past weeks. Slowly reading and savoring a good novel. Watching comfort TV shows while cozy in bed. Phone calls and voxes and texts with friends and family. Kitchen-dancing to 70s and 80s music coming from our favorite real-life radio station.

Little things. But big helpers.

What little things come into your days to help you get through? Look for those joy connections. Do those things, even if they seem little or small, that help you.

Sometimes the little things can make all the difference.

❤

 

when anxiety tools aren’t working…

High anxiety has been part of my life for a very long time, and some days are worse than others. And sometimes, those high-anxiety days turn into high-anxiety weeks (or longer). That’s the way it’s felt recently.

There are tools I keep in my metaphorical toolkit for calming and de-stressing. These are things that have proven to be helpful for me over the years, things I turn to time and time again. Things like breathing exercises, prayer, painting, taking walks, tapping, aromatherapy, brain retraining, porch sittin’, watching comfort tv, meditating, and other tools and techniques for quieting an anxious nervous system.

But I’m going to be honest. When my fear is stuck in high gear, the tools don’t always seem to work.

When that happens, I’ve found that it’s best to layer tools. I need to do a combination of different things, and sometimes I have to experiment to find which combination will work on a particular day. And sometimes I have to do this in an off-and-on sort of way because the effects might not last long.

And I’m going to be honest again. If the anxiety is super high, the effects might not only be temporary for me, the effects also might be quite limited when it comes to how calm and less anxious I feel.

But I consider any reduction in the high anxiety to be a positive step.

Do you have a metaphorical anxiety toolkit of techniques you can turn to when feeling stressed, anxious, or overwhelmed? It’s worth it to have one and use it…and if it seems like the tools aren’t working, try layering them.

❤

laughter yoga, anxiety, lightness…

As part of my healing journey, I’ve started taking time each day for some laughter yoga.

Laughter yoga is something I’ve thought of doing for years because I’ve long known the benefits of laughter when it comes to physical and emotional health. But I procrastinated and put it on the back burner, thinking to myself “oh yes, I need to look that up on youtube” whenever I happened to think of it at all.

But thanks to the brain retraining and neural rewiring I’ve been deeply diving into lately (because of my physical healing journey, as well as to help with my lifelong anxiety), laughter yoga came back into my awareness several times over the course of a few days. And my procrastination about it finally came to an end.

What is laughter yoga?

Well, this is the definition according to wikipedia: Laughter yoga (Hasyayoga) is a practice involving prolonged voluntary laughter. This type of yoga is based on the belief that voluntary laughter provides the same physiological and psychological benefits as spontaneous laughter. It is done in groups, with eye contact, jokes and playfulness between participants. Forced laughter often turns into real and contagious laughter.

I haven’t been doing it with a group (I’m not aware of any groups in my area for laughter yoga) but youtube has been filling in just fine.

And the laughter changes things… Physically. Emotionally. Mentally. After even a few minutes of laughter yoga, I notice a decrease in anxiety and a new level of lightness to my mood. I’ve also noticed that the benefits stay with me long after I stop the laughter yoga session. The good-feeling energy-shifting of the laughing spills over into the rest of my day.

I’m doing lots of other things to decrease anxiety, engage with joy, and help cope with physical symptoms. Laughter yoga is only one tool of many in my toolkit.

But so far it’s proving to be a very helpful tool.

There are many laughter yoga videos on youtube – way more than I’ve watched. Here’s one I’ve used:

It can feel a bit strange at first, it can feel not-really-funny at first, but the laughter becomes contagious. Before long, I’m laughing just because.

It’s those mirror neurons firing.

And the results are good stuff.

♥