Anyone who knows me knows that I love mornings. I love the solitude, the beauty, the quiet, the coffee. But the reason that I really love them is that every single morning gives you the opportunity to start fresh. To start from a new vibrational state, to be intentional, and to spend time tending to your energy. This gives you the absolute best shot of things going your way and feeling good throughout your day.
However, there are still those days when you wake up feeling good and do everything right and then something happens that knocks you off kilter. Or maybe you just haven’t been able to get to that place of feeling good for quite some time because, you know, life. What then? How do you get back on track? How do you get out of a negative spiral or stop a bad 5 minutes from turning into a bad day or a bad week? I’ve summed up 5 tips to stop this negative spin and help you turn things around when this happens.
- Catch it early. What you focus on expands, so it will be much easier to stop a negative spiral of thought if you catch it early on in its rampage. Being vigilant with your thoughts and emotions is key. If this is new to you, you’ll be surprised what you find when you start to pay attention! Take notice of when you went from feeling good to feeling bad. What happened? What emotion is surfacing and what thoughts are causing it? It’s our thoughts about circumstances and people that cause negative emotion, not the actual circumstances or people. If you can catch it early before momentum has really kicked in, you can usually shift gears and focus on something else. This act of awareness gives you the chance to let it go.
- Move your body. Being stuck in a negative thought cycle or feeling like a particularly heavy emotion has a hold on you is an indication of energy being stuck in your body. If you can’t release this energy at the level of the mind, do it from a physical level by getting out of your head and into your body. Go for a walk or run, do some yoga, swim or do some breathing exercises. Anything that gets the energy moving in your body will be helpful. Yoga and deep breathing are particularly good for this.
- Change your environment. This can just mean getting out of your immediate environment for a while by going for a walk in the woods (highly recommend!), or it can mean re-arranging furniture and purging your home or office. Changing things in your environment and getting rid of things that no longer serve you creates a powerful energy shift that will have you feeling better in no time.
- Take a nap. This is my personal favourite! This one is obviously not feasible for everyone, but for those of you who can take 10-20 minutes and doze off — it works better than anything for breaking a negative tail-spin. Momentum stops when you sleep, so it allows you to stop negative thinking in its tracks and start from a new place when you wake up, much like you can do every morning. Set an intention to let go of whatever was on your mind and start over. It’s like a reset button in the middle of your day.
- Breathe and repeat a mantra. Just breathe. Stop whatever you’re doing and drop into your body. Take several long, deep breaths. Develop a mantra that you say to yourself over and over whenever you feel overwhelmed or anxious. Choose something that resonates with you. Maybe it’s something like Glennon Doyle’s “we can do hard things”, or maybe it’s a Sanskrit mantra like “om shanti ananda”. The words don’t matter that much, it’s how you feel when you say them that matters. So make it something that will make you feel like goddam cheetah!
If all of this fails, and there will be days when you just can’t get there, the best thing you can do is be ok with it. Just acknowledge that you’re not feeling great and let it be. It’s ok. You’re allowed to feel terrible sometimes. It won’t last. Everything is a matter of perspective, and that new perspective you need may be right around the corner. So start expecting it. Go to bed knowing that you have an opportunity to feel differently the next day. And remember, you are not your emotions. Emotions are just energy, and they can be released.
For help on how to start your day with intention and get out ahead of this negative cycle, check out my e-course Mindful Mornings.
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