Calming the Chaos
Over the last month, I have been forcing my sympathetic nervous system to activate almost constantly. Our sympathetic nervous system is responsible for our body’s fight or flight response. It increases our breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure. It also affects our mood and sleep when triggered through stress or danger. Long term affects can lead to high blood pressure, increased risk for heart disease, imbalances in immunity & metabolism, and issues with mood, sleep, and digestion.
I joke because I can recognize that I am damaging my health, but I feel almost powerless to stop it. Isn’t it ironic that you can feel powerless to stop the very thing that you are causing?
So, the question is, how do you stop? How can you pull yourself out of a seemingly endless black hole? How do you return to yourself when your external world is chaos? How do you stop the stress from compounding in your life?
I wish I had these answers, both for myself and for humanity, because what a difference that would make for the world. I do not know it all. I can only offer what I have been learning and what I have been practicing as of late that has been helping on my specific journey.
Let’s dive in:
On an energetic level: we’re going through this massive shift & it’s making us all feel uneasy and restless these days. Energetic healing modalities like reiki, sound healing, acupuncture, EFT, (this list is endless) are so powerful and so widely unused in Western medicine. Knowing this (& that you’ve made it this far in my newsletter), I would like to offer a 20% discount using the code: CALMTHECHAOS when you book a Reiki session through my website.
On a seasonal level: we’ve just entered the fall equinox. Our days are becoming shorter, the nights are becoming longer, and the temperature is getting colder. This time is symbolic of the natural cycle between life and death.
On a physical level: we are constantly getting assaulted with stimuli: consider all of our electronics, our cars, our lights and sounds. We also live in a society that demands instant gratification. It seems like everything is urgent and it must be completed the second it is asked. It is dangerously easy to mask our stress and feelings of discomfort with distractions like TV, doom scrolling, or alcohol.
Returning to yourself amidst the chaos:
This is a very conscious practice - go easy on yourself.
You have to become aware of what’s happening in your body (physical recognition), then drop into your breath (pranayama - life force connecting body and mind).
Step away from whatever is bringing this reaction out in you.
Fully immerse yourself in only one task/project at a time. Let everything else fall away, knowing that you will have time to address it later. Avoid look at the big picture of what’s going on since this only leads to that feeling of overwhelm and anxiety. Recognize and let go of what you cannot control.
This one is the hardest, but allow yourself to FEEL it. Lean into the discomfort so that you change something or make a shift in your life. Masking the uncomfortable emotions won’t help you move out of them, it just keeps you stuck and stagnant in that energetic vibration.
I cannot stress this last one more: turn the TV off, put the phone away, and do not consume alcohol or coffee. Remove the stimulation in your life, even just for a few moments. Get back to basics (like how our ancestors lived), and focus on existing with less to do. Less noise/disturbances/activity. Allow yourself a moment or a day to actually be bored! What a concept in this day and age, right?
Take a soothing bath, go on a walk outside, bless your water, brew tea. Engage in physical activity or a sound healing session. Meditate, sit under a tree, read a book, open yourself up by connecting with others. There are so many ways that we can tap deeper into ourselves once we remove the distractions and slow down. Allow yourself to just Be.
“Stress is not what happens to us. It is our response to what happens. And response is something we can choose.” - Maureen Killoran
