Election
This newsletter is a little chat, a little meditation and a lot of love... If you prefer to watch me speak through this head to the bottom of the page to watch the video, otherwise read on...
Today is Election Day… and it is a day full of emotion and feeling and worries.
Give yourself the permission to feel whatever you want to feel today and for the days ahead.
You don’t have to please everyone
You don’t have to talk about your feelings
You are allowed to take a break, to step away and to put yourself first
Recognize that what you are feeling is normal, and that others will most likely be feeling the same and maybe handling things differently. Take time to just disconnect.
Give yourself the permission to reward yourself, practice self care, to rebuild yourself. There is no shame in feeling anxious, broken or defeated. Just know that this does not have to be your “forever” it is simply what you are feeling right now.
Look for things to ground yourself.
5 things you can see
4 things you can touch
3 things you can hear
2 things you can smell
1 thing you can taste
By doing this you are centering your brain and grounding your body which gives yourself time to regroup internally.
Dr Rick Hanson talks about how we as humans can use framing devices
Framing Device Number 1
Deal with the bad
Turn to the good
Take in the good
Framing Device Number 2
Let be
Let go
Let in
Framing Device Number 3
Slow down
Breathe and see the bigger picture
Using all of these framing devices in conjunction together will help you to have perspective, to look at the issue, see the bigger picture and to re-frame it.
Where there is stress there is for the most part always hope. Where there are negative experiences there are for the most part benefits.
Sorrow tenderizes the heart
Remorse helps us take the high road
Anxiety alerts us to threats
Good judgement comes from experience, but experience comes from bad judgement
Bad experience and negative experiences increase resilience, awareness
But we as humans want positive experiences, we don’t want to live in a world of negativity, you need to find the balance.
Mother nature has given us an amazing brain. We learn and grow and build on this every day. We need to learn how to tap into the calm and contentment that our brain has the capacity to provide, to increase our positive emotional wellbeing.
We are taught to make small mistakes so that we don’t make a huge mistake that can have greater consequences. We need to learn to take in the good and to re-frame.
1 – Let a good fact become a good experience, look at everything in a positive light
2 – Savor the positive lights; make this feeling intense, be still
3 – Allow yourself to sit in this positive light for 30 seconds and reframe your initial negative feeling
Here is an example…
So, it’s raining, you don’t like the rain, but you know that this rain brings life, growth and sustenance for the world.
You now have this positive light.
Pull on your boots and take a walk in the rain, smell the growth, look at the insects breathe in the sweet cleaned air as the rain washes away all the negative ions and recharges the air.
You are now savoring this positive light.
Stand for 30 seconds – raise your face to the sky and let the rain fall on your face, let it wash away all the negative perceptions you have of the rain.
You are now sitting in this positive light and re-framing it.
Now imagine the rain is you – you have the strength within you to wash away all your negative energy, you have the strength to overcome any obstacle that is placed in your way. Be as strong as that rain.
Raise your head, breathe and follow this short-guided meditation.
Sit tall or find a comfy spot that is quiet, and you won’t be disturbed
Become aware of the sounds around you
How many different things do you think you can hear?
Take a deep breath in and listen to your breathing. Pay attention to how your body feels
As you exhale imagine your greatest feeling, your greatest accomplishment
How did that make you feel?
Allow yourself the permission to smile and recall that memory
Take another deep breath in, now imagine you are in a snowy forest
Blow out through your mouth – focusing on the air and how it is cold in the chill snowy forest
Maybe your breath is like a wave, coming in and out slowly and calmly
Pull your spine up tall and honor yourself by having a good posture
Hold this for a moment just breathing gently
Inhale in the calm and exhale out the stress
Notice your body, how does it feel?
Where is your mind, what are you thinking?
Are you in the snowy forest, with the cold wind blowing?
Or are you sitting in the warm sand with the ocean lapping
Breathe in deeply and as you exhale imagine where you are sitting and repeat:-
“I am enough,
I am where I want to be,
my life is my own,
I have everything I need”
In the 2016 election it was found that election stress disorder was a real thing. In 2019 The American Psychological Association found that 56% of American adults identify the presidential elections as being a major stressor, this is a 52% increase on the year before.
Be kind to yourselves. I am here if anyone wants to chat, virtually, over a cuppa.
You've got this friends. You are strong.
With love and gratitude and understanding
