When I don’t want to face something, however small or big, it starts building up in my body as a feeling or a sensation.
Feeling of overwhelm, anxiety, being “behind” on my to-do list… that sort of thing.
And I know I’m not alone.
But when I actually catch myself feeling those states, I now know what can shift it and release stress – and without doing any deep analysis of what’s exactly going on…
(although, let’s be honest, we usually know what we’re avoiding/procrastinating on/or are too scared to take action on)
…just being able to release stress and those feelings.
Releasing anything heavy or messy creates space to then fill it with emotions or states of your choosing. Like courage, facing that fearful situation/worry and replacing it with information about what it will take to get it done or sorted.
So last time we cleared something in our surroundings, physical clutter.
Today I’m taking 5 minutes to look inwards (and I invite you to join me, as well). And before you feel resistance and think “oh no, not now, maybe I’ll do it later…”
One question for you: if you were to jump on social media right now and scroll for 5 minutes, would you be very hard on yourself for spending those 5 minutes that way?
If you’re honest with yourself and know that THAT could happen, and your world would keep turning…, then it’s quite possible you can take 5 minutes right now to do this simple exercise.
5 minutes to clear the build up of “emotional clutter”
Once you read the instructions I invite you to close your eyes. (You can set a timer for 5 minutes or choose an instrumental song you like that’s about that length and play it in the background.) Take 5 deep breaths.
And then, ask yourself “How am I feeling right now?” Let the answers, and feelings and sensations show up. Name them in your head. How am I feeling right now? How am I really feeling right now? …
And then, once you name them, instead of resisting feeling them (as we so often do, we want to push them away and stay unaffected, but the feelings we resist feeling, they build up and become even stronger), instead, allow yourself to feel them for a couple minutes. And they’ll actually pass through like a quick blow of wind. Instead of finding a nice spot inside and situating themselves inside you like a heavy rock you then need to carry around….
So, you’re closing your eyes, taking 5 deep breaths, asking yourself “How am I feeling right now?”, naming the feelings and sensations, and then, once you do, the only thing left to do for the rest of your 5minutes is to keep breathing imagining the breath going to the parts of your body where you felt those sensations and feelings reside.
Breathe in and out and repeat to yourself, “all parts of me are welcome here”, “all parts of me are welcome here”… And then just keep breathing, sending your breath to those parts of your body that showed up when you ask yourself how you’re feeling.
There is no wrong way of doing this, if you do it in a slightly different order, that’s fine too.
Breathe in through your nose and out through your mouth if you can.
Your breath is magic. It carries energy. And you’ve got medicine inside you. You can make yourself feel better – without even needing to talk about or think about what’s the cause of those feelings that come up.
Breathe in. And out. All parts of me are welcome here.
You can do this as many times as you want, as often as you’d like. And I promise that if you allow yourself to pay attention to what’s going inside, and send some breath, love and acceptance to those parts, the feelings will transform. They’ll lessen, you’ll release some of the tension, and you’ll be able to replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.
Breathe in. Breathe out. All parts of me are welcome here.
Are you feeling this? This is the best gift you can give yourself today. Not chocolate or Netflix… although both of those are great! But they will not release stress, nor transform the feelings that are coming up inside. Only addressing the inside will help shift those feelings and fill that space created with joy, happiness and magic. (And THEN when you add chocolate and Queen’s Gambit, THAT will be pure joy – as a choice, not a way of avoiding something else.)
You’ve got this. I’m going to do my 5min breathing with you and release stress right now as well.
I am holding space for you to have a beautiful encounter with what’s coming up. And for you to be able to let it go through you, like a quick blow of the wind. We don’t need to be carrying any rocks around anymore…
Sending love ❤️
