Three Techniques for Sweeping Out Stress

Spring Cleaning for Your Mind

"The body is the best mind reader on the planet." ~Dr. Joe Dispenza

Spring is a time for sweeping out the cobwebs, an opportunity to start fresh and clean. What if we gave our mind the same attention that we give our physical surroundings? There are probably some stale thoughts in there that are holding you back, and giving them a good spring cleaning could help you move forward with a fresh mindset. Our thoughts affect our physical state, so making a few adjustments could actually be good for your health. When you change your relationship to your thoughts, you change your relationship to yourself.

Responding Versus Reacting

Our thoughts can be like an inner voice or ticker tape constantly running through our head. "I don't know if I like this." "Why did he do that?" "I hate this weather." Thoughts constantly generate without you even trying. Who is saying all this inside your head? You would likely say that it's you, but actually, you are the one noticing the thoughts. You notice the world coming in from the outside, then you generate thoughts about it. You are the observer of your thoughts. Think about it. You might say, "I had a terrible thought the other day." Who is saying this? The part of you that is not the thought. You are not your thoughts.

Most of us go through life reacting to our thoughts. These reactions can happen so quickly that we often don't understand where they came from. There can literally be a split second between an event in the outside world, our thought about it, and our reaction to the thought. The trick is to create some space between our thought and our reaction, to become more aware of our thoughts. Stressful thoughts generate the chemicals of stress in the body, so the more we can learn to respond rather than react to our thoughts, we can decrease the physical effects of stress. We can also improve our relationships and come up with better solutions when we encounter a stressful situation. Here are three techniques that can help. 

Witnessing

To witness means to notice. Take a sheet of paper or a journal and jot down thoughts you notice throughout the day. Obviously this won't be every single thought because we have tens of thousands of thoughts per day. If you notice something is irritating you, take a moment to jot down the thoughts you are having about it. If you notice you are feeling happy, jot down your thoughts. Maybe you are trying to solve a problem. Jot down your thoughts. This increases your awareness of your thought patterns. There's something about getting a thought out of your head and onto paper that helps you look at it more objectively. It gives you some distance from it. It can feel a little less personal. You can be a little less judgmental of yourself. It helps you notice what the mind is doing. The mind will always comment on what you are seeing. Just notice it. Then try to relax and release your reaction to the thought. You can also practice witnessing by simply sitting for 15 minutes and watching your thoughts come and go. Buddhism has a concept called "just tree." It means when you can see a tree without all your mental commentary around it, you can then actually see the tree. Witnessing is the beginning of this process.

Attitude Breathing

This is a technique from the HeartMath Institute. Thoughts generate emotions, which generate reactions. Attitude breathing helps you identify emotions you would like to transform and the thoughts behind them. Then it helps you flip the script. Begin by identifying an emotion you would like to transform (anger, impatience, jealousy...). Then list the situations that trigger it and any thoughts associated with it. Notice if there are any patterns. Then list an emotion you would rather experience in its place and a thought you would rather tell yourself about it. Perhaps the emotion you want to transform is frustration. You notice this coming up when situations arise that don't go the way you want them to. You notice that the primary thought you say to yourself when you are frustrated is "Life is hard." You decide you would like to transform frustration into calm. You choose a more positive replacement for "Life is hard" such as "I can take the next right step."

Then close your eyes, place your attention on your heart, and begin to imagine your breath flowing in and out of your heart center. Bring up your replacement emotion (in this case, calm) and feel it as much as you can while breathing. Do this until you feel a shift inside. You are decreasing the intensity of frustration and increasing the feeling of calm. Practicing this daily and in stressful situations helps to rewire neural pathways so that eventually, calm becomes your new normal. 

Mantra

A mantra is simply repeating a word or phrase in your mind until it becomes your default program. It's like background music that gives your mind a place to rest when things get hard. You can shift your consciousness onto it when stuff happens. A beautiful distraction. Choose a phrase or a word for your mantra. It can be anything that resonates with you and helps you to relax. Mine is "Relax. All is well." To help your mantra become your default program, practice it for 15 minutes each day. Simply sit quietly and repeat your mantra to yourself as you breathe in and out. You can do it with the rhythm of your breath. Then repeat your mantra as you move through your day. Repeat it when you go through a door, when you sit down to eat, or when you pick up your phone. Make it like a game. This will help instill the mantra as your background track for your day. 

Start Sweeping!

When you practice these techniques, you are making an investment in your consciousness. You will become less resistant to the flow of life. You are softening your automatic reactions to life and becoming better at responding to life. When working with these techniques, go for the low-hanging fruit first, like traffic or the weather. Some situations are easier to work with than others. As you experience success, it will be easier to work with more difficult thoughts and situations. So sweep out those cobwebs in your mind and give yourself a fresh start. You deserve it!

A great book for learning about how to work with your thoughts is Micheal Singer's Living Untethered: Beyond the Human Predicament.