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Health & Fitness

Living from Outer Reaction or Inner Traction?

The return of school, the onset of fall and the approaching holidays  are opportunities to down shift gears. "Whaaaaat?!?" you may say. What about rev up and go?! Granted, getting back into school mode requires a different energy, a different schedule and making more efficient use of your time, whether you are the teacher, the student(of any age)  or the parent.  Or anyone for that matter effected by the onset of school.  And who isnt in that category, right?  The school buses on the roads during the mornings and afternoons require different time and stress management and for all of us out there with them. 
With the arrival of fall and the gradually increasing hours of darkness it can leave us feeling even more pressed and compressed to get in what has to be done in the given daylight hours. The signs of winter's impending arrival can trigger a last ditch effort fight response of do do do before its too too late.  
But just Doing and Going without also Being is known to leave us stressed, and eventually depleted, looking back with regret wondering where the days and our energy went. This time of year with arrival of the holidays can cause a reaction of putting the pedal to the metal to do more, expend more and enjoy less.  So, just as we shift our car engine into a lower gear when we need added traction, so too we need to gain added inner traction as we tell ourselves to do more, feel ourselves spread thin and struggle to keep up with the pace. Oh yeah, while still enjoying ourselves and life!  So in downshifting, slowing, pausing, to gain better traction we can steady ourselves and be better able to do what we need to. Inner traction is about remaining grounded from inside as the world outside rushes or spins, sometimes furiously, around us.  Our decisions and actions come from a stable, solid place rather than hair trigger reactions that come from the unsettled emotions we haven't yet taken time to get to know or address. There are many ways to remain or regain being grounded.  Making sure there is time for oneself as well as quality time for your loved ones is essential.  Even just 10-15 minutes a day or a half hour 3 or 4 times a week of meditating/praying, deep breathing, journaling, visualizing, reflecting and clearing out of emotional residue from the previous days can help provide necessary traction for the, at times, seemingly uphill battle of taking on the busyness and demands of this time of year.  There are some wonderful tools out there to help us ground ourselves, clear obstacles and gain clarity and calm.  And when we make use of them, lo and behold, we react less, can be more present in our lives and still tackle our daily family/work to-do lists. And we do so without sacrificing the wellbeing of our mind, body and spirit or our relationships. 
One such tool is EFT / Emotional Freedom Techniques aka Tapping. The basics are easy to learn and the benefits can be immediate and significant. Using principles of acupressure and psychological affirmations a signal is sent to the brain to calm itself and release what is causing stress, worry, anxiety or pressure.  Layers of built up negative reactions, fears and feelings are gently released.  The mind and body experience relief. I will  be writing more about EFT and other useful "tools" in future blogs. If you're interested in learning more let me know! 


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