Life is full of stressors and unexpected things that pop up and throw us off-center.

What can help us with this is first knowing that, that is how life is, and second having practices in place that allow us to recenter and rejuvenate so we can go back to whatever we need to handle, from a more centered and fresh space.

I’ve recently had a lot of unexpected things show up in my life that have been stressors and what has been helping me the most is remembering these things.

1. Know when to take a break when you’ve been working on something so long and you’re too tense or tired to really focus well. You often just need a break to reset.
2. Using mindfulness and your breath to remember to relax your body and that nothing is really worth causing you to get so stressed out because it just affects your health and makes you less able to function and deal with whatever is on your plate anyway.
3. When we get too caught up in our minds in a way that makes us agitated puts us in fight or flight, we forget the possibility that we can be more relaxed in the midst of the ups and downs of life. How do we do this? First by knowing and acknowledging that this reaction is going to happen and that’s ok and second by coming back a moment to moment and reconnecting with the space of the present moment through your breath and being present to what is all around you, the smells, sounds, colors, and sensations.
4. Letting go of being overly attached to things. Do your best and be open to trusting in life. See if you can feel the sense of responding to life rather than reacting to it. Being overly attached to something means that you can’t be in the flow. Allowing our body to be more or less relaxed is akin to being in the flow which often allows our challenges to be resolved more easily than not. Have you ever noticed that when you’re in extreme reaction, nothing works very well, and things often go a bit sideways compared to when you’re more chilled and relaxed and in the flow?

When you’re in a place of just responding in the moment to what is going on, you’re more in alignment and more in the flow.

Taking slow deep breaths and being with the awareness of the movement of your breath, calms your nervous system and your mind and begins to rewire your brain and restore you to the parasympathetic state. This can turn down the volume of your mind and begin to make more space for being more present and peaceful.
Sometimes people have a hard time getting this, especially for people who are type a driven, it is counter-intuitive to think that you might get more accomplished or have things at least get accomplished more easily with a practice of mindfulness or relaxing into the flow of things.
What are some other ways to cultivate a more relaxed response to or cultivate reducing stress and creating more peace in your life?
Have an intentional practice for doing what nurtures you and helps reset your nervous system when you’re not working or when you’re agitated or anxious.

• That could be anything from spending more time in nature.
• Taking a bath with magnesium salts and essential oils
• Playing music that is healing for you
• Working in your garden.
• Exercising
• Eating well
• Watching something that makes you laugh
• Being with loved ones

Any small daily practices that bring you back into a state of flow or balance contribute to rewiring your brain so that when things do get stressful, you’ll be able to create more harmony and balance and have more resilience and capacity to deal with the challenges in life.