What Helps Me Come Back To Center
Thank you for joining me this Wisdom Wednesday! Today I decided to talk about different ways that help me calm down, relax, and bring myself back to center. I’ve gotten this question a lot from friends, clients, and customers at Swanson’s within the last week, so why not make a post about it.
If I am being completely honest, I am no one hundred percent perfect at managing my stress but I do my best. I store my stress in a few areas of my body such as my jaw, neck, shoulders, and gut/digestive system. It usually takes me a little bit to noticed when I am stressed, however once I notice it, I start using the variety of tools (depending on what’s causing my stress) that I have learned to help bring me back to center. The last two weeks was the last time I was under quite a bit of stress. I was working almost every day at my part-time job, moved my business into a new space in the same building I’m renting from, and then I tried to make time for some friends. About the second week the stress was really getting to me, because my stomach started aching and I was getting a sore inside my mouth. I ended up giving myself some reiki energy around my stomach, which started helping me relax.
This recent experience reminded me how important it is to have a variety of supportive practices to help relax our nervous system when life gets stressful. Not every tool will work in every situation, because it depends on what’s causing the stress. Relaxing and healing isn’t linear. Over the years, I’ve gathered a wide variety of techniques to help me reduce stress and I love to continue learning new techniques as well. I’d love to share a few tools with you that I use to help me come back to my center, in hopes it inspires you to discover ways to help you reduce stress.
Reiki
I’ve struggled with social anxiety since I was pretty little as well as over thinking situations, and ever since I’ve learned Reiki back in the summer of 2011 when I was living in Missoula, this has been one of my go to tools to help me relax. After taking my first class, I learned how to give myself reiki and started noticing how much more clarity I had when making decisions as well as being less nervous when I communicated.
One thing that I have learned about reiki over the years is that each experience is going to be different for each client, and every reiki practitioner is going to give off different energy. Healing isn’t the same for everyone. I saw a phrase about reiki recently that said, “A reiki practioner does not directly heal you. Instead, they create and hold space that facilitates your self-healing with energy. A practioner serves as a guide, channelling universal energy to help you tap into your own healing abilities.” This is why I became attuned to reiki.
Journaling
Since I tend to overthink, my mind sometimes can’t stop thinking about certain experiences or situations. One thing that has helped me calm this down, even before I learned reiki, has be journaling. Journaling is interesting because once I start writing my thoughts in a free flowing manner, I start to calm down and thinking more clearly.
“Journaling is like whispering to one’s self and listening at the same time.” -Mina Murray
Quite a few years ago I was struggling to remember past experiences in my everyday life, and that concerned me. So one day I decided to get a wild hair up my ass and start writing in a journal at the end of each day. I wrote for almost 2 month straight and I got to the point where I felt confident enough to remember what went on in my day to day life. I’m sure there is some kind of scientific explanation as to why this helped, however I haven’t really taken the time to look it up and I don’t feel I need to. It is fascinating enough for me to be amazed by how our brains work.
Walking, Hiking, Being In Nature
I included all of these into one category perse, because I love going for walks in nature! Breathing fresh air, seeing all the colors of nature, feeling the wind and the ground beneath my feet, and hearing all the different nature sounds is soothing to my soul. Whenever I get frustrated with a situation of any sorts, I go for a walk sometimes which helps calm me down and I can go back to the situation with more clarity.
Tuning into your surroundings forces your brain to be in the present moment and can relax your body, especially when being in nature. Exposing ourselves to nature spaces reduces cortisol and releases serotonin. Therefore, walks and hikes in nature is good for overall health, which is why I love them as a tool.
Tapping – AKA: Emotional Freedom Technique
A few years ago, one of my reiki friends introduced me to the emotional freedom technique to help reduce anxiety. Basically it’s an acupressure technique where you tap on different areas or meridians of your body. It sends calming signals to the brain to help regulate the nervous system.
I use this technique from time to time while I am in large crowds, and I do find that it does help. When I was younger I was diagnosed with a learning disability, so whenever I took tests in school, I would start fidgeting because I had test anxiety. Sometimes I would twist a piece of my hair, shake my foot or leg, or chew on my cheeks and tongue. I usually wouldn’t notice it until someone pointed it out to me.
I don’t know what stopped me from doing the last one, but as the years have passed I don’t do that anymore. I do however still do the other things, especially when I’m out in public around a lot of people. With all that being said, tapping has become another great alternative tool for helping me with my anxiety.
Music, Sound, Vibrations
I have always loved music, and I am sure a lot of people do. Music has a way of moving our souls. It moves us through words(chanting, affirmations), pitch or different tones, and vibrations. Most people feel the higher the vibration the better it sounds, which can be therapeutic. For me however, it’s the opposite. The lower the vibration, the more relaxed and therapeutic it feels for me.
Speaking of vibrations, I often find myself humming tunes often. Some of my coworkers notice me doing it and said they love that I do it, because no one else seems to do that at work. However one of my other coworkers likes to whistle, so there is that. Haha. Anyways, humming is another tool that I use to relax. I recently came across a book on humming. Within the book there was a section on how it affects the physical body. It made a reference as to how it increases nitric oxide, which I talked about in my post I made about beets a few months back. Not only does humming relax the body, it also increases blood flow.
In recent experiences, tuning forks have been my go to for relaxing. I had gotten a few sound sessions done within the last year, and one of my reiki friends that use tuning forks, noticed that my body responded well to them. After their session, I felt pretty relaxed and calm. Since then, I have been experimenting and playing with them on myself and in sessions.
Overextended.
Moments of self reflection.
How can I relax?
I feel like I could go on and on about the many different techniques that help me manage stress and find my way back to center, but for now, I’ll leave it here. Remember that stress looks different for everyone, and the tools that work best for me may not be the same for you. The important thing is finding practices that help you slow down, reconnect with yourself, and create a sense of balance.
I hope you found something helpful in this week’s post and perhaps feel inspired to explore a few new ways to support yourself during stressful times. Thank you for joining me on this Wisdom Wednesday journey, and I look forward to sharing more with you in the future.
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