Reframing the Mind in Uncertainty
Hello out there!
I hope you're snug in your homes with your families, enjoying your time together, and this beautiful spring.
Sessions are postponed until further notice, but I will stay in touch and reschedule with you on an individual basis. Looking forward to seeing you all again soon!
Gratitude is a major focus as we have all taken this past week to slow down and evaluate our current situation. A huge thank you to all medical professionals assisting and working overtime. Thank you to all of our essential workers in emergency response and grocery stores, keeping us safe and with food on our tables.
What an incredible time to witness.
We are living through a major transition, which is shifting our entire world. This is such an incredible opportunity to embrace our fears, anxieties and relationships by taking a more proactive role in our lives, and our healing. We always have a choice in how we respond, and we can simply choose to respond differently-breaking old patterns.
All emotions are first felt in our bodies, and each one has a specific muscle pattern. Our muscles are smart, and they can "learn" to hold a pattern we feel a lot, like a shortcut. We do this intentionally when we train our muscles to hold in a certain way for a specific sport. When we feel that feeling a lot, our body eventually begins to hold that emotional muscle pattern, subconsciously- even when we aren’t necessarily expressing that emotion all the time- because we’ve trained our body to accept the tension as part of our normal, relaxed state.
Ever notice when you think you’re fully relaxed, and then you’re able to soften more than you realized was possible? You notice you were holding tension somewhere you didn’t even realize? Maybe when you’re just falling asleep, or in a bodywork session?
It turns out we can access these subconscious emotional tension patterns by practicing noticing our emotions when they present themselves. We can train our muscles, and we can use the intensity of our emotions as tools to bring a more conscious awareness to how our muscles are responding to our minds. Does that fear make you squeeze your glutes? Are your shoulders collapsing forward, protecting your heart and vital organs? How does fear and anxiety manifest in your jaw? Your tongue? Your hips? Your toes- are they clenching the earth? How do your feet feel as you notice your weight on the ground?
Once we are able to notice an intense emotion and become observant, we unlock our ability to redirect the feeling of an emotion in our bodies. By releasing any gripping or tension through developing a heightened body awareness, we are able to have a direct effect on our minds. Instead of anxiety, for example, we may reframe thoughts into exciting opportunities for growth. We're an intelligent species, capable of rapid adaptation. We're so ready for this.
No one makes good decisions in fear, anger, or "hot emotion mind," a Dr. once told me. So if we live in an anxious reality, we will almost always be making decisions in fear; short-term, non-specific decisions, based on survival. That doesn't work long-term, and it's usually pretty exhausting.
In order to adapt, we need to be calm, and we need to be more specific and decisive.
We need to inject our lives with purpose; purposeful directions, goals, and dreams.
We need to be clear about what we are grateful for, and take steps to maintain anything that will sustain us.
We need to remain connected to one another.
We need to be resourceful, inquisitive, and regulated in order to make purposeful long-term directional choices, while remaining in the present moment.
Right now, while we are living, regardless of what was happening 2 months ago, or even 5 days ago, we have been presented with a incredible opportunity to immediately captain our own ship. We've been watching and learning, and now we've happened upon a vessel, sails flapping in the breeze and ready to be commanded. This is our moment to chart a course, shift the sails, and take off into the sunset in the direction of our choosing.
I know I would prefer adventure and excitement over panic and hysteria, but how do we "choose a different response to fear?"
The first thing we need to do is notice the emotions when they appear by developing our body awareness. Here’s a link to a guided body-scan meditation I’ve put together to continue healing work with everyone from a distance.
Keep an eye out for upcoming posts. I'll be taking this opportunity to work on my online presence, do some more writing, and create some video content in an effort to stay connected to you. It'll include some self-healing tips and suggestions, grounding and meditation exercises, and some really useful stretches.
Stay in touch with yourselves and each other.
Happy Spring! 🌱
Gretchen