During these challenging times of COVID-19 and world events, it can be easy to drop into doubt, uncertainty, and fear. Just hearing the news on a regular basis can add to these feelings of tension.
When you're exposed to ongoing negative news, it can create tension in your body. This isn't good for your stress levels or your health.
Is COVID real? Of course, it is. Should you take precautions in boosting your immune system, washing your hands, and being aware of coming into contact with others who might have COVID? Of course. However, when we are truly safe, even if it's only in the present moment, we need to acknowledge it and take it in. This gives our bodies a break and a chance to let down.
When you let down and relax, you give your immune system a break and a chance to remain healthy. Letting go of unnecessary stress is key to maintaining your health.
Reminding Your Body To Relax
Something you can do to alleviate this stress is to implement a daily routine of "reminding your body" to relax.
If you've ever experienced trauma or a frightening event, you know how your body can tense up. Unfortunately, when there are ongoing traumas or dangers, our body can get locked into a state of perpetual tightness. Our adrenals stay on high alert rather than letting down once the danger is over.
There are steps you can do to change this. You can consciously remind yourself that "At this moment, right here, right now, I am safe" Because it's true, right? If you think about right now, as you're reading this, there is no imminent danger.
Yes, COVID is still here. People's jobs can be uncertain. But at this very moment, you're ok. We can perceive dangers that could happen in the future as being currently a danger to ourselves. This isn't true.
Steps to reset your body to a state of calm
1. Start your day out with a positive outlook.
- The outlook you head into your day sets the tone for your entire day. Why not be pro-active and set it to one of optimism, hope, exploration?
- YouTube has a large variety of motivational videos. You can start your day with one of these. Here are a few as examples, or to get yourself started:
- When you set up your day with a sense of positivity or a great intention, you set the tone of your entire day.
- Consciously take the time to remind yourself that in the present moment you're safe. You can think this, write it, or even tap it in. I'll include some tapping phrases you can practice as a reminder
- Like any habit, the more you repeat it, the more it becomes second nature.
- Whether it's setting a daily reminder in your phone to give yourself a reminder to breathe deeply and just relax, by reminding yourself to relax throughout the day, or doing some rounds of tapping (EFT), you're training your body to stay in a state of relaxation and ease.
- Yoga
- Meditation
- Walks in nature
- Creating pieces of art
- Scheduling in downtime just for yourself
- By shifting your awareness from worry or concern, to what you love or appreciate about your life, you're giving yourself more uplifting and relaxing thoughts.
- By being in a state of gratitude, even for a few minutes, you're resetting your mind and your body to a more relaxed state. It also opens your heart and allows you to receive in a much easier way.
EFT Tapping Phrase to Create Ease
Here are 2 different examples of how to use EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique, or tapping), to create ease in your body.
Example 1: Doing the full round of tapping:
In this exercise you'll tap through the standard form of EFT starting with the setup phrases:
Setup:
Even though I have all of this tension and worry in my body and in my life, I am ok.
Even though I'm feeling so tense and anxious, I deeply and profoundly accept who I am and how I feel.
Even though I have all this tension in my body, and the world is so uncertain right now, a part of me knows there are ways I can create ease in my body.
Starting on the eyebrow point and continuing with the rest of the points:
By feeling the memory of a pleasant memory and then holding your wrist, you're anchoring this feeling deeper into your body and your present time.
You can change any of the words to fit your particular sensations or thoughts as you go through the exercise.
2nd Method of Tapping:
This is one you can do throughout your day when you notice tension in your body:
Here you would skip the setup phrase because you're already aware of the issue you want to work on, which is the feeling of tension.
You can either tap on one point, or you can go through the whole series of points - whichever feels right for you. There's no wrong or right here.
Example 1: Doing the full round of tapping:
In this exercise you'll tap through the standard form of EFT starting with the setup phrases:
Setup:
Even though I have all of this tension and worry in my body and in my life, I am ok.
Even though I'm feeling so tense and anxious, I deeply and profoundly accept who I am and how I feel.
Even though I have all this tension in my body, and the world is so uncertain right now, a part of me knows there are ways I can create ease in my body.
Starting on the eyebrow point and continuing with the rest of the points:
- All of this tension in my body and my mind.
- All of this tension. I'd like to let it go.
- I wonder if I can let it go?
- Maybe I don't need to be hypervigilant all of the time
- I wonder how I can create ease in my body?
- All of this tension in my body. It's ok to let it go
- I wonder if that's possible?
- Maybe I can release it a little at a time, in the way that feels right for me
- All this tension in my body.
- All of this fear and doubt.
- Relax and let it go.
- All of the need to be in control.
- I wonder if I can let go of the need to know and just relax?
- Maybe I can just relax and open up to curiosity and exploration.
- Maybe I can trust that I have everything I need to make the right decisions
- Maybe I just didn't realize I could do this.
- All of this tension. Release and let it go.
- All this tension. It's ok to let it goIt's safe to let it go
- It's time to let it go.
- All of this tension in my body, in my thoughts, and in my emotions.
- Release and them it go.
By feeling the memory of a pleasant memory and then holding your wrist, you're anchoring this feeling deeper into your body and your present time.
You can change any of the words to fit your particular sensations or thoughts as you go through the exercise.
2nd Method of Tapping:
This is one you can do throughout your day when you notice tension in your body:
Here you would skip the setup phrase because you're already aware of the issue you want to work on, which is the feeling of tension.
You can either tap on one point, or you can go through the whole series of points - whichever feels right for you. There's no wrong or right here.
- I'm safe in my body.
- Right here, right now, in this moment, I am safe and I choose to relax
- I'm safe and my body can relax
- It's ok for me to relax
- All of this tension I'm feeling, relax and let it go
- It's safe to let it go.
- It's ok to let it go.
- I am safe
- I choose to release and let it go.
- In this moment I choose to recognize that I am safe, right here and right now
- I can now let down my guard and relax my body
- I choose to relax my body and feel at ease
Discounts During Covid
As a way to support others during these challenging times, I've decided to offer a limited number of discounts for the months of July & August. If our economic shutdown continues past that point, I'll look at extending the discounts.
If you're interested in seeing if the work I do could be a support for you right now, email me and we can do a 20-30 min complimentary all to explore how this work can be a support for you
