Need some end-of-year stress relief?
Thanksgiving can be the beginning of a long season of gratefulness that can prevent holiday burnout and create more energy and balance -- you just need to INTENTIONally add a small step into the mix.
Here's how:
When you press pause on your problems and stressors long enough to get present and count your blessings, you can actually put your mind and body into a state of inner coherence.
Coherence is a high-performance state that implies harmony, connectedness and order.
In a state of coherence, the part of the brain that does the thinking and analyzing – the cortex – is functioning optimally (not stressfully). This also helps your whole body to function better: your breathing, blood pressure and heart rhythms will all work in sync together. This “shift” gives you mental, emotional and physical balance, and an improved state of clarity, calm and even confidence.
You can facilitate this process by slowing down your breathing (just a bit) while you hang-on to those elevated thoughts and emotions of gratefulness. This slows down your heart rhythm and creates a more coherent pattern, which will also slow down your monkey mind (don’t worry, you’ll still be able to think – in fact, even better – when you’re out of your survival brain!).
Focus your attention in the area of your heart (this gets your energy out of your racing mind and in the right place!).
Slow down your breathing, so it’s slower and deeper than usual (about 5 seconds in and 5 seconds out).
Activate a feeling of gratefulness, and try to hold it or “lock it in” it for 1-3 minutes.
Use this technique to reset throughout the day, on-the-go before a stressful conversation or to slow down before going to sleep.
Like anything, it takes practice. Give yourself the gift of gratefulness 3-5 times a day (set your phone) and see what’s possible this holiday season if you repeatedly show up for a calmer you!
Interested in how coherence can benefit you?
I recently became a HeartMath® Certified Mentor…ask me about this!
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