Part Two
Exercises for Self-Management
- Conscious Breathing
This is a big one because in our daily super busy lives we just don’t take enough breaths.
Especially when you are under stress, just take a step back, close your eyes and breathe for a few moments. Feel the breaths, fully experience this. This will allow you to monitor yourself and not react right away in certain situations but rather let yourself go for a bit and once you are in a calm state, you can think straight.
Conscious breathing from the diaphragm is recommended. Breathe in through your nose long & deep and breathe out longer and deeper through the mouth with a sigh of relief. We want to get rid of the stale oxygen that rests in the lungs, skin, blood, brain cells and body cells.
- Count to 10 when in stressful situations
Adding onto the above, when under stress not only take a step back and breathe but count to ten slowly. The best way to do it is to take a slow breath in and say “one” as you exhale and then do this until you reach 10.
Another trick here is to take a sip of water before you act or say something to avoid snapping and to calm yourself down.
You can also shake your hands by your sides while laughing, with the intention of releasing stress, frustration, anxiety, sadness and depression.
- Reframe
Each individual perceives things differently. What’s good or bad for me may not be so for you.
Changing our points of view, especially when stressed out or angry can be a powerful tool to manage your emotions better in the moment.
There are three different types of reframes that you can do in such situations, maybe even when you are doing the above exercise with counting to ten:
- Context reframe: ask yourself, in what other situation would this event or behavior be positive, e.g. when someone is too stubborn, wouldn’t this be a great skill in tough times when you can’t do it on your own?
- Content reframe: ask yourself, what can be another positive meaning of this situation or behaviour, e.g. you just missed the bus, what are the pros? You never know who you’ll meet at a bus stop.
- Content reframe: laughter yoga aids in allowing you to see the “Silver Lining” in all life’s experiences. Laugh when you’re angry, sad, frustrated, depressed, stressed, anxious, in pain emotionally and physically, and see how long those feelings last when you have a good belly blast.
The idea here is that your mind has a choice how to perceive reality and you can train it to serve you best.
- Fix up the bed hygiene
We need to learn that we need to switch off from those devices regularly and make the bedroom a forbidden place for them. Ideally, you’d want to switch off the laptop or TV two hours before going to bed because their light is like sunlight keeping you awake and making it more difficult to fall asleep. And as we know, we need a proper amount of sleep in order to function well, both physically and mentally.
If you’re up for it, engage in a one minute laughter blast. You’ll release melatonin and you’ll have a more relaxed and deeper sleep.
- Set aside time for problem-solving
By being constantly busy with yet another to-do on the never ending list of things we need to take care of, we rarely spend time actually thinking through things.
If we want to solve problems and be creative, the best thing to do is to dedicate the time for that too in addition to the time we spend GSD-ing – a totally HubSpotty word for getting shit done.
An easy way to do this is to dedicate 15 minutes a day, yes, only 15 minutes, block them in your calendar and just take a walk to reflect and think. That’s it.
You can also sit in a room where there are no distractions at all. With only pen and paper at the ready, sit for 15 minutes in complete silence. If any thoughts come to mind, write them down. Don’t think about what you have just written, just remain in a quiet state of mind for a full 15 minutes.
You’ll get to know your mind and think better this way. You’ll be able to manage situations in a manner that you are aware of.
Have a joyous day, week, month, year!
Kathryn
Part 3 to follow