A Mental Exercise For Self Care

Sometimes the day, or a moment, leaves us feeling a little shaken and stirred. It might be more like a feeling that you are lost, unsure of which direction to take.

Or it might be more like you are falling and falling and can’t stop… you just want to grab hold of something, some truth to help you feel still again.

“Grounding” is a recent trend where you take off your shoes and make physical contact with the Earth. People often do this when they are feeling stressed. They say it helps calm the nervous system.

There are times when we need a little more than just physical grounding — a grounding of our mind as well as our body! When you feel as if you are being pulled in too many directions, a little lost and a little disconnected. I thought I would share a mental "grounding" activity I do sometimes as an act of self care. It really helps me remember how to be "me" again if that makes sense.

Here is a very short exercise I do to get back my power and my calm and find my sense of direction again:

Write down the following and fill in the gaps (thinking is too chaotic and fast, writing it down will help you think clearly):

The feeling/s blocking me right now is .....

It’s likely linked to my belief that....

One truth I need to remember right now is.....

Two actions I would do if I wanted my future self not to experience regret is:

Three things body needs so I can help it carry out the actions are:

Four core traits that make me “me” are:

What these prompts aim to do is help you reconnect you with your values and work out your next steps. The ones that are aligned with your values.

This is super important because very often in times of turmoil or disruption we forget to act in line with our values. Perhaps we are so busy reacting to fears, or blinded by our frustrations that we forget to be true to ourselves.

This is dangerous as a parent for a number of reasons, the number one being that when we habitually don’t act in line with our values we actually get quite depressed it happens so subtlely and slowly over time that we may not even know why we feel so bad all the time.

Additionally when we don't act in line with out values, our kids experience a totally different parent than the one we think we are.

By taking a little moment we are able to recenter ourselves and that can help immensely. Like a hiker looking down at their compass before moving forward again so they don’t get lost.

Whoever you are and whatever it is that you are struggling with right now, please know that you are never far off from where you are meant to be. Give yourself a little grounding (and a lot of self-compassion), and the path forward will reveal itself to you.

Lyd