Gain Control of Your Mind

I have had several people in my office terrified of the state of the world right now.

Tears shed over racism, fear of politicians, and intense emotions about daily life abound.

This is your present moment bumping up against old neural pathways already primed and in place due to previous life experiences.

This dynamic makes whatever we are emotionally feeling towards the world right now seem very big and possibly overwhelming.

I am not trying to judge how you vote, think, or feel towards any individual; I don't care.

I want you to understand how to gain control of your nervous system if it feels unhinged right now in our current climate of Covid, politics, and violence.

The next time you feel yourself in an anxious or angry panic, stop and breathe until you feel calm; it may take a few minutes.

When you can notice what places in your body feel activated or less relaxed and sit with it.

For example, I just read a news story, and I can feel myself move towards anger.

I breathe for several minutes and notice a tightness in my throat that takes up my entire throat, and it feels hard to swallow.

The texture of this sensation is bumpy.

It feels hard and tight as if hands are trying to close it.

I keep breathing and stay with the sensation and then ask what emotion it is holding.

The answer comes, I am holding fear.

Now I am no longer overwhelmed.

I have shifted away from anger and am realizing that the emotion of fear I feel in my throat is manageable.

I have a lot of tricks on how to handle fear in my life.

What I described is the practice of nervous system management. Following the steps will help rewire what is happening with you right now.

“We have taken an emotional response that seems extensive and pervasive and broken it down to smaller, more digestible pieces. ”

If you need some experience doing this with a practitioner, call me.

A few sessions and learning simple ways to manage your nervous system when it bumps against overwhelm is relatively easy stuff.

We can work on this together, so reading the newspaper can be done without emotional outbursts.

Free Somatic Therapy consultations always available.