“Most illnesses creep in when you are not present in your body” Eckhart Tolle.
A friend of mine texted me today asking for help. He wants to get out of his head and into his body and needs a 7 day plan. He suggested I focus my blog for the next 7 days on tips to do this. Great idea! One of the most daring and mighty things you can do for yourself is to take control of your mind and body. If it’s not something you are in the habit of practicing, it’s bloody hard to do. Much easier to stay in the comfort zone, mindlessly allowing your head to rule your life. But you know that isn’t the way to happiness. We want to get back to happy! What should be ruling your life is your heart and spirit. To get in touch with them, with who you really are, you need to get outta your head!
Constant thinking is bad for you. Urgh, just thinking about that horrible mental loop makes me feel so uneasy. To feel trapped in your own head is dreadful. I totally relate – I have been there. For me, it was a habit formed at a very young age – anxiety and worry were my constant friend. As an adult it was incredibly detrimental, disconnecting me from my body, disrupting the natural flow of energy and trapping it in my head, resulting in tension, unease, anxiety and illness. In some it causes headaches, migraines and insomnia, to name a few. The resulting affect on your health is dreadful.
“The more consciousness you bring into your body the stronger your immune system becomes” Eckhart Tolle.
So, the order of the day is to get you out of your head and into your body. There are all sorts of techniques to facilitate this and some will work for you better than others. I will share with you what has worked for me in the past and what works now when I slip back into old patterns. My friend has asked for a 7 day action plan and that is what he shall have because he is a beautiful soul and the world needs his light, which is currently trapped in his head. What a waste. I hope this helps, my friend!
The Daring & Mighty Action Plan to take you from Head to Heart, Health & Happiness
- 1.Breath (simples!)
- 2.Get Physical (Olivia Newton John loves this one)
- 3.Put Pen to Paper (sounds like head work – trust me, it’s the opposite)
- 4.Get touchy feely (don’t worry, this isn’t as weird as it sounds…!)
- 5.Go Au Naturale! (ditto above)
- 6.Check-in (sooo much better than checking out…)
- 7.Affirmations (well, it wouldn’t be a daring & mighty plan without these now would it?)
So, let’s start with Breathing.
Air is our life force & breathing is a natural flow of energy. Part of the problem of being in your head is that you are trapping valuable energy up there, allowing it to fester and become negative energy, starving the rest of your body of the health and vitality which would be released if only that energy was allowed to flow down into and through you. We can release that negative energy and convert it into positive energy simply by working with our breath.
Yoga is a brilliant way to master an awareness of your breath. It also increases the anti-stress hormone, prolactin and the well-being hormone, oxytocin – which is low in those suffering depression. The other great thing about Yoga is that is works with your mind, body & spirit – it is a one stop shop! I should really put my expensive yoga gear into action and get back on that mat…..
There are a variety of breathing exercises that take quite some skill and concentration but when practiced regularly are apparently incredibly effective in calming the mind and feeling aliveness in your body. There are so many types – from alternate nostril breathing to pranayama to circular breathing or up-side-down breathing. Thing is, I have personally found it hard to master any of those and found it all a bit overwhelming. Two of my favourite techniques are SO simple and I use them when meditating (another way to master your breath and calm your head):
- 1.‘I am breathing in’ ‘I am breathing out’ ‘I am breathing in’ ‘I am breathing out’
Sit up-right, slow your breath and focus entirely on your breathing by silently saying these words as you inhale through your nose – ‘I am breathing in’ and as you exhale through your mouth, ‘I am breathing out’. It’s hard for your mind chatter to interrupt when you are solely focussed on repeating those words in your head. Do this for at least 20 minutes but the more time you can spend the better. I find I get the best results if I do 30 – 45 minutes. Some nice calming music or sounds of nature in the background helps a lot too. If persistent thoughts bother you, gently say to them that you understand they are important and that you will pay them attention later but right now, you are focussing on your breath. I bet that after really relaxing into this exercise, you will feel so great and so back in touch with ‘you’ that those bothersome thoughts suddenly won’t seem so challenging and you will be able to deal with them much more easily, at the right time.
- 2.‘The Straw’
Imagine a straw running from your perineum straight up through your body and out your head. Sit quietly and upright. Imagine you are sucking air from the bottom of the straw right up to your head. Suck up the air as slowly as you can and as the air passes through each area of your body, imagine you are sucking up every single tension, worry, anxiety, uncomfortable energy and difficult memory until they all build into a pressure cooker in your head. Hold your breath there. Hold it and hold it, allowing the negative energy to really really build and then forcefully blow it all out through the roof of your head, with a big sigh of relief. Repeat this several times until you feel like you have moved all the negative energy out of your body and are feeling calm. I often find that tears of relief flow when I do this exercise as I move from my head back into my spirit and it feels so good to get back ‘home’. Once you reach that place of calm, it’s the perfect opportunity to allow yourself to slip into a lovely meditation and spend some time at home with your true self. Magic!
I hope that is a helpful start. Tomorrow, we get physical….!
