Finding time for yourself can be difficult. Here are some exercises that, once learned, don't take long, and can really have a positive impact on your day.
Tip one: Calming Breath is a basic Take a Break Strategy. When tense or annoyed we often take a quick breath in and then forget to let it out. This is not good as holding your breath or breathing quickly tenses you. Learning to consciously take a calming breath off and on throughout the day un-tenses you. Here’s how.
1. Breathe in slowly.
2. Hold until you feel some small bit of tension.
3. Breathe out slowly.
4. Smile gently.
5. Say a quiet “Thank You.”
Go about doing what you were doing.
Tip two: Center. When you have a bit more time extend, the power of Calming Breath by Centering. Take that first Calming Breath then breathe normally and notice how it just feels to breathe in and out. Watch your thoughts. Don’t try to control your thoughts. Just notice them as they come and go. Some find saying a silent “Thank you” to each thought interesting. Spend at least a minute or two centering and when you must go on to something else take another calming breath.
Tip three: Remember What Matters. All past sages and current researchers know that caring, sharing, and kindness matter most both for personal happiness and in efforts to bring the world to a safer place. Most of us are caring people, but we all need to strengthen our ability to care for those outside our circle and most particularly those whose ideas and beliefs differ from ours.
Tip four. Be With Beauty. Thich Nahn Han, noted Buddhist activist, says beauty can be found anywhere. He say one can see beauty in garbage and garbage in a rose. It all depends on one’s willingness to look deeply into each.
I keep beauty around me in many ways. I have one sea-shell perched on the base of my computer monitor. I see it all the time. To Be With Beauty, I must stop, start Calming Breath by slowly breathing in while focusing on the shell and completing Calming Breath.
I collect and post Be With Beauty pictures on my Pinterest board. If you want to share some of your Be With Beauty Pictures or quotes related to Beauty contact me by email (emotfit@live.com) or repin one of my pictures of beauty and I will find you and repin one of yours.
Tip five: Practice Calming Self Talk. Finding short slogans that remind you what matters helps you take a break from negative thoughts. Here are some of mine:
It is all all right.
Now is not forever
Life goes on.
Thank you.
When I am centering and negative thoughts seem unusually strong, just saying “Thank You” can diminish or transform negative thoughts into something more useful.
Tip six: As always practice kindness. I end most of my blog posts by asking readers to be kind to me by liking, commenting, sharing, or pinning my post. Doing so helps me stay strong and maybe does the same for some others as well. But kindness, sharing, and caring can be practiced easily in a thousand ways. Smiles, hugs, complimenting strangers, complimenting loved ones, passing along compliments you have heard about someone who isn’t there—99% of the time practicing kindness is like giving a hug—you get kindness back.
A THINKING ABOUT WHAT MATTERS QUOTE:
We must love them both –those whose opinions we share, and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for TRUTH and both have helped us in the FINDING of it.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Katherine Gordy Levine is a wife, mother, grandmother and professionally she has worked as the Program Coordinator, Mental Health Association NYC; Direct Group Home Program SCAN NY; Associate Adjunct Professor at Columbia University; and Director of Social Services at St Luke’s Women’s Hospital, among other leading professional roles.
Katherine has spoken at close to 60 seminars, workshops and events. A sought after guest speaker she has spoken on topics such as family support, children’s mental health, anger management, family violence, parenting, intervention, self care and emotional fitness. She has been a guest speaker with the Institute on Psychiatric Services American Psychiatric Association, American Public Health Association, NASW’s Annual Conference, and she has spoken at universities across the country, from Portland to Washington.