For every minute you remain angry, you give up sixty seconds of peace of mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How has your week been? The U.S. election dealt quite a surprise to the country – a surprise that half the country wanted and a surprise that an equal other half did not want by any stretch of the imagination. The thing is, whoever was to be president of the U.S., they weren’t going to save us, as much as some people like to believe that.
To me, it is a call to up my game. I want to make sure I am doing everything I can to make my business a success, support my clients at the highest level, and do everything in my power to make my little corner of the world a better place to be. That means I can’t succumb to disillusionment with the system, negativity, and desolation. I have to rise even higher. I have to choose to find as much light as I can in every moment I can. So today, I want to share with you some tips to help bring you a sense of equilibrium whenever you are feeling a bit unsettled. Whether it’s the events in the world or in your life, you can choose to take some steps to come back to yourself. That is always the best place to start anyway.
Three tips to find peace amidst a storm:
- Pause wherever you are. Take three deep inhalations and exhalations by counting. Count to three as you inhale, hold the breath in for three, exhale for a count of three, hold the breath out for a count of three. Do this three times. This helps bring you back to the present moment and slows your breathing, which is key to anxiety reduction.
- Change the scenery. If you are starting to feel restless, move. If you are at work, walk to the other side of the building or take a walk outside if you can. If you are at home, walk outside for a few minutes. Change it up. Don’t sit and fester. Once you get outside or go somewhere different, you’ll find you are noticing different things. What had been bothering doesn’t seem quite as pressing anymore.
- Engage in an activity you love, even if you only have five minutes. This could mean reading a few pages of a good book, dancing to one of your favorite songs, walking to a coffee shop close by, calling a good friend for a quick chat, watching a funny video that makes you laugh, or jumping up and down. Do something, anything, to change up the energy, to shift from the negative to the positive. When you return to whatever you were doing before, you’ll have a fresh perspective and new energy which bolsters our adjustment mechanisms.
We can’t always control what life throws at us. We can control how we respond to these curveballs. That is what makes all the difference.
What can you do today to shake things up?
Sending you a breath of fresh air and lots of positive energy,
Kori