Let me know in the thread: When your head is spinning, caught in a loop of the same thought, worry, memory or otherwise, what do you do to move on? Get yourself out of it? Distract yourself? Comfort yourself?
I know how wonderful this community is, and while I hope that the loop I am stuck in while scheduling this post has passed at the time of its arrival to you, I look forward to the tools you share for next time. Not just for me but for us all to borrow.
I go for a walk with my headphones in. Or sometimes I just write all my thoughts down as if I were going to put it into a newsletter and then just leave it because it is no longer in my head and that is all I need for it be, gone
Lauren, I'm in this place often! I have a few questions, writing prompts, and physical actions in my 'toolbox' for moments like this, to also normalize that they happen (when I'm not surprised by the looping and instead like 'oh my gosh, how sweetly human this is', it's more workable). So I guess that's the first thing, having a handy reference toolbox for the inevitable brain spins :)
Some tools I use: I start patting my body all over after learning this from TCM. It gets my mind reoriented and feels kinda silly, but it also lets out some energy and feels grounding. Sometimes I just lie down on the floor and make a dramatic exhale lol. I also often ask myself the questions: How can I be with this? What is the smallest next choice I can make right now? (putting on a song, drinking water, closing the computer, getting fresh air...) <3
Ahhhh I so appreciate you giving a voice to the normalizing. Why are we so quick to get rid of it before first acknowledging its very humanness? This helps so much, thank you 🧡
And thank you for these tools. I am going to pop them into my toolbox 🧡
I remember hearing somewhere that when having a panic or anxiety attack to focus on the five senses: what do you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste around you? Focus on it and describe it. For example, fight now I am sitting at my desk at work and there is a red and green poinsettia on my end cap, wrapped in red cellophane.
I am happy to say this feeling is infrequent for me now. It wasn't always so. Somehow you need to step back, above, to the side, to observe yourself from the outside. When I was particularly caught up in thoughts I had a couple of friends to whom I could report that I was caught up in these thoughts. One of those friends would simply say. 'OK, how long are you going to be caught up there? I would jokingly say, oh, another 20 minutes but by then I was already free of it.
I go for a walk with my headphones in. Or sometimes I just write all my thoughts down as if I were going to put it into a newsletter and then just leave it because it is no longer in my head and that is all I need for it be, gone
WOW! This writing them down as if... what a BRILLIANT idea. I love this, thank you 🧡🧡🧡
Lauren, I'm in this place often! I have a few questions, writing prompts, and physical actions in my 'toolbox' for moments like this, to also normalize that they happen (when I'm not surprised by the looping and instead like 'oh my gosh, how sweetly human this is', it's more workable). So I guess that's the first thing, having a handy reference toolbox for the inevitable brain spins :)
Some tools I use: I start patting my body all over after learning this from TCM. It gets my mind reoriented and feels kinda silly, but it also lets out some energy and feels grounding. Sometimes I just lie down on the floor and make a dramatic exhale lol. I also often ask myself the questions: How can I be with this? What is the smallest next choice I can make right now? (putting on a song, drinking water, closing the computer, getting fresh air...) <3
Ahhhh I so appreciate you giving a voice to the normalizing. Why are we so quick to get rid of it before first acknowledging its very humanness? This helps so much, thank you 🧡
And thank you for these tools. I am going to pop them into my toolbox 🧡
I remember hearing somewhere that when having a panic or anxiety attack to focus on the five senses: what do you see, hear, feel, smell, or taste around you? Focus on it and describe it. For example, fight now I am sitting at my desk at work and there is a red and green poinsettia on my end cap, wrapped in red cellophane.
Love this one, thank you so much 🧡🧡🧡
I am happy to say this feeling is infrequent for me now. It wasn't always so. Somehow you need to step back, above, to the side, to observe yourself from the outside. When I was particularly caught up in thoughts I had a couple of friends to whom I could report that I was caught up in these thoughts. One of those friends would simply say. 'OK, how long are you going to be caught up there? I would jokingly say, oh, another 20 minutes but by then I was already free of it.
HAHA! This is brilliant! Thank you Marian 🧡🧡