This August I will give some love to my mind
2020 has been rocky to say the least. I am not sure about you, but with everything that has been going I am feeling quite exhausted. Of course, I tell myself that it is not necessary, that all is well, that we will learn to manage the new normal, that everyone I love is healthy and that we have a nice home to stay-cation in.
None of this is a lie, but by talking to myself in that way I am effectively denying how I am feeling. I am adding additional stressors on my situation because I am not allowing it to be and I am judging myself, and my reality, massively. I know that this just makes the feelings of exhaustion more difficult.
So I change the narrative and the attitude I bring to my exhaustion. I remind myself that my mind, as all of our minds, have been hyper-active managing all the stressors that have come our way these last couple of months.
The worry about our health, family, jobs. The challenges of working from home, home schooling, cancelling or changing holidays, it has all been quite a lot.
When I speak to others, it seems that a lot of people are feeling exhausted. I let myself be exhausted. If it is too much I even take a break and lie down. This has taken a lot of pressure off and I feel better for it.
I also realise that there is still a lot to come. The reality is that we do not know what is still to come. Someone said to me last week:
If only there was a deadline to all of this, then it would be so much easier to manage
but there is no deadline, we have to deal with the insecurity of it all. This got me thinking about the holiday month of August. How can we use this time to set ourselves up in the best possible way to deal with this level of insecurity? We might be able to go on holiday and switch off a little, but is there something we can do this month to focus on feeding our minds, so that we can rest and reset before September starts.
So, what are some things we can do to feed our minds?
How to give our minds some love
Below a couple of tips that i have been trying out, but possibly more importantly, are actually proven methods to feed your mind.
- A 5-minute meditation every other day (or every day!). You can find meditations on the MindStrength website and if you subscribe to MindStrength you will have access to your own dashboard and meditation library with 100+ meditations.
- Practice appreciation with one photo a day. Whenever you are having a nice moment, take a picture of it. Make sure the picture makes you smile. If it is your thing, you can share your photos on our social media either Facebook and/or Instagram.
- A different kind of ‘to do’ list: Write down 5 things you would like to do in August that you enjoy. Do them – and tick them off your list.
- Shift your energy. Think of one thing that depletes your energy and try something different with this activity in August. For example: if reading the news at night makes it harder to sleep – don’t read the news at night or if chores around the house are exhausting you, see if you can make them a meditation – just by doing them with awareness.
When we do this we actively calm down the ‘threat mechanism’ of our brain and build neural pathways that support calm, resilience and wellbeing.
