President and CEO of the Fascia Training Institute and the Developer of SFT (Stretching Fascia Technique), Simone Fortier, shares with Top Medical Magazine some strategies to shut out the world in this guest mental health article.
Have you ever felt like you were being bombarded with information, demands, and people’s emotions?
Have you ever questioned if you are on the right path?
Have you wondered how to stay centered when the world around you has gone insane?
When your brain is under stress it is often difficult to stay calm. Once you have lost the calmness and inner sense of peace, how do you get it back?
Let’s begin by looking at the power of our mind.
Every Thought Matters
Every thought has a frequency, a vibration that can affect your health, your goals, and your relationships. Thoughts drive your actions and your emotions. No action is possible without deep and purposeful thought. Emotions often dictate or imprint thoughts in our brain which create a cascade of events. To be in charge of those events, we need to create space in our brains for change and direction, and to be aware of the law of attraction, we get what we focus on.
How do you begin to clear your mind to create the world you desire?
Strategy #1: Prevention
Shutting out the world and slowing things downs begins with this simple step. Stop everything you are doing and take a deep breath in and out. Deep breathing helps you stay present and gets you in the zone. All conscious thoughts stop. In this space there is healing and creation.
Breath is essential to all life. Science indicates that deep breathing helps reduce anxiety, decrease inflammation, and improve immune function.
Breath and movement of the diaphragm supports the motility of all organs and stimulates the Vagus Nerve, which tells the body it’s time to de-stress and relax.
Strategy #2: Pacing
Pacing is a method for reducing stress, listening to yourself and creating a strategy for success. When we overschedule, the brain becomes overwhelmed. When this happens, you can feel defeated. The goal is always prevention. Pacing is about balancing activity not only between the following, it also is about how much time is crucial for quality-of-life activities.
- Work
- Family
- Friends
- Spiritual Practice
- Self-Care
Strategy #3: Planning
Not only is planning your year, your month, or your day essential to success, it also is effective at calming down your brain. Creating a plan can help you track your progress, accomplish goals, as well as envision the bigger picture. Often times we can get caught up in the moment which could be an obstacle and detour.
Keeping a journal validates your changes, your struggles, and taking pen to paper makes it real. If we keep thoughts in our mind, our brain is unable to rest, which affects our quality of sleep at night. Writing things out stimulates the frontal lobe (dopamine is involved in memory formation), and parietal lobes (where acetylcholine is released, and this neurotransmitter determines our brains age in the brain). This technique directs and relaxes both the conscious and unconscious mind, helping you stay focused and on task.
Strategy #4: Practice
Did you know your first thoughts in the morning direct the flow of your day?
Creating a practice before getting out bed and even before you go to sleep directs what you attract and the flow of your energy.
In those sacred movements:
-
- Stop. Do not look at your phone.
- Do not look at social media.
- Do not start your workday.
What to do:
- Take a breath, envision what a successful day is to you.
- Stay present, engage the art of gratitude.
- Move. Wake-up your brain, bend your knees, and gently rock your knees from side to side.
Strategy Tip #5: Promote Self-Care
You have been told this a zillion times. Plan this into your pacing prevention program.
What that could mean daily to you:
- Take a walk outside.
- Workout.
- Stop looking at social media.
For the year:
- Plan a vacation.
- Take a course.
- Have a treatment.
Taking the time to invest in your health and wellbeing can only occur when we shut out the world and listen to ourselves. This is when the magic happens.
For more information on how to work with Simone, please email info@simonefortier.com
Social media links:
https://www.instagram.com/simonefortier
https://www.facebook.com/simone.fortier/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonefortier/
Check out the latest blog/newsletter https://www.simonefortier.com/blog/
