I’ve been stressing a lot lately and stuck in decision overload. My son will be 13 years old in two weeks and I am grieving all the things his father has missed and will miss in the future. I could have written a story detailing all the reasons life feels heavy right now, but instead I’m going to cover three practices that are helping me move through the darkness.
Guided meditations on the InsightTimer app: Sarah Blondin is a new favorite, especially her Self-Love Dialogue: 15 Minutes To Inner Peace which starts out with the following:
I love you.
I am listening.
I love you.
I am listening.
When we live in a state of distraction,
We often forget that there is a heart and a self within us that needs love and attention.
We are often more busy showing up for others in this way,
That we neglect to care for our own hearts.
And this creates a type of separation and alienation from our source of love.
I find one of the most potent and empowering ways to realign with our hearts and our self,
Our deepest self,
Is by saying these two simple lines to ourselves.
I love you.
I am listening.
Reading and listening to Letters From Love with Elizabeth Gilbert every Sunday (new posts drop at 11 a.m. Eastern Time). It really is the “kindest corner of the Internet” where members can share their own letters from unconditional love or just read others’ letters. Over the last year, this community has encouraged and supported me through some of my darkest days, and provided a space where I can give back to others along our journeys in Earth School.
Listening to Brainspotting: BioLateral Sound Healing – David Grand PhD: • 2014 • 17 songs, 2 hr 5 minutes. You can read more about the science behind bilateral stimulation and anxiety reduction HERE.
If you just want to feel better about your stress levels and what it’s doing to your body, check out this Stanford Report: Embracing stress is more important than reducing stress, Stanford psychologist says,
The three most protective beliefs about stress are: 1) to view your body’s stress response as helpful, not debilitating – for example, to view stress as energy you can use; 2) to view yourself as able to handle, and even learn and grow from, the stress in your life; and 3) to view stress as something that everyone deals with, and not something that proves how uniquely screwed up you or your life is.
We’re in this together and we’re going to be okay.
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