Pause: Mount Sinai Surgery: Recent Episodes
Jane Lodato, Mount Sinai Surgery
Insert a Pause into your day to decrease stress, gain perspective, focus and ease. We all get hijacked by our thoughts and feelings, often they are habitual. With practice, you can rewire your brain to identify and decrease your own reactivity which in turn can make your life easier. While we cannot change what comes at us any given moment we do have a choice as to how we want to respond. In that choice lies the opportunity to live with increased ease.
Is your mind racing? Is your body tense, contracted? What feelings might be in the driver's seat? The practice of checking in with yourself, noting how you are feeling, what mood you are in and what you are thinking, can help you become familiar with the landscape that is you.
By becoming aware of what is driving us at any particular moment we pause, and we gain insight into our own reactivity. This awareness provides us with a choice as to how we want to respond to what is happening in and around us, as opposed to walking around on auto pilot. While we cannot control all that happens any given day we do have a choice about how we respond it which can prevent stress and burnout.
We can be tenacious when it comes to needing something to be a certain way, believing someone or a situation needs to change, or perhaps feeling we "should" be or do something in particular. The "shoulds" can be a signal that we might be swimming upstream, resisting. Exploring how it might feel to let go is a useful practice in honing the ability to get perspective. If we can let go a bit it will help not only to reduce the stress created by our own tight grip, but perhaps to decide just how much holding on really matters.
This is an introduction to Mindfulness. 10 Deep Breaths is a great basic practice that you can do anytime. It can be helpful when the mind is racing, when feeling anxious or frustrated.
We all have times when something gets to us, be it a person, a situation, something we are rehashing, or times we judge ourselves. Try this when you feel frustrated, anxious, angry or judgmental. This practice will help not only to gain perspective but also to loosen the grip of whatever emotion has hold, or even help you to let go.
Where are you holding your tension? Our emotions and our day show up in our bodies, We all contract and armor up throughout each day. This 10 minute body scan will systematically let you open up and let go. Try it before going to sleep or any time you need a break. Practice listening to what your body is telling you about when something is impacting you.
When our minds are running at full speed we can feel overwhelmed. This practice will help you to take a step back, regroup and reset. When we are not so caught up in our heads we can find respite within and then proceed with a renewed focus.
A four minute pause to check in with yourself, come out of your head, into your body, giving yourself encouragement and a reset.