Sarah Updikehe past couple of weeks have been….well….exhausting. Juggling ALL OF THE THINGS along with bracing myself every time I walk past a TV showing the news has my sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) switched on constantly. Even sleep is less restful than usual, lousy with full-color dreams I’d rather not think about. I find myself wishing for a flip-top head so I can massage my very tired brain.
Then, last night, I was outside and I looked up…
And there was the moon.
That same moon that’s out there almost every night. Moon was just hanging out there in the sky with the stars, glowing as moon has glowed for millennia.
I took a deep breath…and another…and one more…
And remembered that moon is constant. Stars are constant. We are constant. The cycles of moon, stars, and we are constant. Just like moon and stars, we rise and we fall, we rise and we fall…we rise…
I took one more breath to make sure my parasympathetic nervous system (rest & digest) was fully online, thanked the moon for reminding me, and went inside.
When we’re overwhelmed and stressed, we often pay attention to our thoughts and not our bodies. The mental spinning we do during these times can be calmed by simple things like noticing, breathing, laughing. To learn more about your autonomic nervous system and how to regulate it during anxious times, check out this resource: https://therapyinanutshell.com/activate-parasympathetic-nervous-system/
What is simplest thing you do to calm your body and your mind?
(Image by Klaus Stebany from Pixabay)
