Dismiss the Chaos
The stresses we face in our daily lives can sometimes be overwhelming. Whether it’s our relationships, finances, family, children, career, or our personal struggle, things can pile up and leave us feeling paralyzed. The good news is, you don’t have to spend every day feeling buried. There are some simple techniques you can use to minimize or even alleviate your stress and anxiety, dismissing the chaos you might be feeling at the moment from your life.
Techniques to Maintain Calm
Mindfulness
Practicing mindfulness helps you learn how to notice present thoughts, feelings and sensations, and then allow them to just go by, without judging them or yourself. This allows you to become aware of your experience, which is central to helping you let go of painful thoughts and emotions, helping you heal. Mindfulness is a focused activity that can help you free yourself from the stresses that may be weighing on you.
Meditation
There are many different forms of meditation. Most of us are familiar with the formal sitting meditation of Zen Buddhism or yoga. In fact, meditation can be done anywhere, at any time and by anyone. The simplest form of meditation as a means of quieting the mind is to simply sit and follow the breath by keeping your attention focused on it. Another form is guided meditation, where someone guides you through a series of steps—focusing on points in the body or asking you to visualize a particular experience—that bring you to a state of deep relaxation.
Visualization
Another way to de-stress is through creative visualization. One strategy for this is to develop a picture in your mind of somewhere that has brought you peace or happiness in the past. Once you have a hold of that picture, you sit with it and connect with those feelings to help calm you down. This can also be done by creating a picture in your mind that is not a real place, or is a place that you want to be. Again, by connecting with the positive feelings associated with what you’re imagining, it supports you in getting back to a place of balance.
Nadi Shodna (alternate nostril breathing)
This is a technique found in Kriya yoga. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and involves alternatively breathing out of one nostril and then the other. This is done by using the thumb and ring finger of the right hand. In the daytime, you start by closing off the right nostril with the thumb and inhaling through the left nostril. You then close off the left nostril with the ring finger, exhaling and then inhaling through the right. You repeat this for 11 rounds, with a round being an inhale and exhale on both sides. When you use this technique after sunset, you do it the same way, but starting with the right nostril.
One thing that’s important to keep in mind around managing the chaos you may encounter in your life is that it’s happening around you. That means, no matter how crazy things may feel like they’re getting, you can almost always remove yourself from those feelings. Using these simple tools can help you do just that, getting grounded and reducing, or possibly even eliminating, the stress and anxiety you may be experiencing in your daily life.