Our emotions are all over the place right now, our thoughts are scattered and anxiety is at an all time high. Little mantras and reminders can help us come back to calm. I often practice coming back to calm and even more so right now.
When we find ways to come back to calm, we can restore and renew, building strength and resilience.
10 Little Reminders to Bring You Back to Calm
1.
If you feel worried about what’s ahead, keep coming back to where you are right now. When you feel overwhelmed, or things feel like too much, come back. Coming back is your connection to hope, and there is healing in hope.
Whatever it is that helps you feel better in your body, heart or mind, this is an invitation to come back to it. Come back to health. Come back to love. Come back to you.
2.
Self-care can’t be a “when I have time” thing or something extra or indulgent. It’s essential. Remove a layer of stress and overwhelm by taking care of yourself (especially when you don’t think you have time).
3.
Even though your schedule is different, or you have no schedule at all, you still get to be selective about how you spend your time, energy and attention. Is it going towards fear or love? Are you spending it on what you care most about right now? So much may feel out of your control but you still have agency over where these precious resources are going.
4.
Thoughts, fears and worries aren’t always true. Remind yourself of that when you are getting carried away by believing everything you think.
5.
6.
We’ve never done this before. We are figuring things out. We aren’t going to say the right things every day. We aren’t going to find balance (did we ever?) and some days are going to be better than others. Instead of striving for perfection or being the best, acting like you’ve got it all figured out or trying to do it all, just practice.
Practice …
- being gentle with yourself and others.
- taking care of yourself and others.
- feeling your feelings.
- losing it all together and coming back to your self.
- setting boundaries around how much news you let in. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- how much energy you want to expend. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
- finding your way.
- trusting yourself.
All those other challenges, fears and hard things you’ve gone through and overcome were practice for this very moment. There’s no being perfect in practice, no competition, no comparison and no guilt … just noticing, learning and growing.
7.
Way, way less. Happiness isn’t waiting for us, it’s within us.
8.
Worry never works. Let your worries go. It won’t be easy, but do it anyway. Write them down, walk them off, shift your thoughts and keep letting it go. And then do that again and again and again.
9.
Gratitude makes the hard stuff bearable and the good stuff even sweeter.
10.
Our bodies, brains, hearts and souls need rest and time to do nothing all the time, but especially now. Rest makes space for recovery and sick or not, we are all going through something that is demanding our strength and attention, and will continue to demand our strength and attention.
The way we stay strong and present is through rest.
Rest your body. Rest your mind. Rest your heart.
It may be the most productive work you do.