Last week I shared the importance of including calming practices in your life and asked you to get clear on your WHY. Your why becomes the driver or compelling reason to incorporate calm or mindfulness into your life. Today is part 2 where you will find simple strategies to bring calm to your life.
You might want me to just tell you exactly what to do, but we are all different and what works for me may not work for you. I have listed 4 of my favourites below, that I find work and fit into my life.
how to use the strategies
Read the strategies below and experiment with ones that resonate with you. Don’t give up on your experiment and think that you are just not capable or even worse, you are too busy. Think back to the reasons you want to bring calm to your life and switch on that growth mindset that says keep trying. If you need a reminder of the reasons why you should bring calm into your life, head back to last week’s article for the list.
Calming Strategies
Car mindfulness
When you are in the car by yourself switch off the radio and wind the window down. Feel the wind on your face, hear the noises outside the car. Look at the trees, and the light of the sky and empty your mind. Just focus on what you can feel, see, smell, and hear. Feel yourself and your body breathe deeply. I am a podcast junky, so this took me a few attempts at training my brain to focus on the senses and stop feeling like I was missing out. It is now one of my favourite strategies.
Music to calm
At home or work when your mind is full of your to-do list or worrying thoughts, turn on some jazz. Either at your computer with headphones or on your home sound system. Let it help calm you down as you move through your jobs. I love the free Spotify playlist called Jazz for Study or Relaxing Jazz music on Youtube. Side note, it also works with children!
Get outside more
Eat lunch outside, step outside between meetings, go for a 5-minute walk or if at home, go and do some gardening in your leisure time. Feel the fresh air, hear the birds or the buzz of the world, see the beauty of nature and feel yourself breathe deeper.
Jump into bed with a good fictional book
Be engrossed in creating pictures of fictional characters and the setting in your mind. It will help you switch off from the daily grind and past or future worries. If you need some motivation to read, join a book club, or start your own.
Have one thing for yourself a week that you will commit to no matter what
Choose something that releases stress, or brings you calm like an organised class, a physical activity, a catch up with someone that fills your cup, or uninterrupted painting time. Mine is tennis. I don’t cancel my Tuesday tennis for anything. I know that it is a great stress release, and I will be much calmer and happier by the end of my games. The act of not cancelling on myself also feels great.
Just breathe
I have an app that I get to flash up on my phone each day that says ‘Breath’. Generally, my brain is telling me all the things I need to do, and my body holds the tension created by these thoughts in my chest and shoulders. As soon as I see the prompt, it reminds me to breathe and relax. It reminds me that I am creating tension and stress and that I can choose to let it go. Awareness is everything.
Simple Breathing Technique
Breathing can be as simple as breathing in for a count of 4, holding for 4 and breathing out for 4. Pause for 4 and then start again. Two to three cycles should do. Be conscious to what is happening in your body and choose the amount of cycles needed for you.
Choose some relaxing smells
Find ones you can roll onto your wrist or pop into a diffuser. I love creating the ambience of calm through different scents when my schedule is full. It also blocks out some of the smelly stale odours of my little boys!
If these don’t resonate with you, then jump on the world wide web and find something that does. Drop a note in the comments of strategies that work for you. Let me know which ones you have success with or others you have found useful. Let’s not keep these a secret.
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