Feeling uneasy? 6 ways to find your way home

I’ve been traveling and speaking a lot over the past six weeks about stress management. As I move through airports, workshops, community centers, companies and conferences, I’ve noticed a buzzy, low-grade anxiety and palpable stress in the air.  No doubt you’ve been feeling it, too.

Before you claim all the credit (and think you’re just stewing in your own election-induced malaise), consider that you may be tapping into what the Swiss-born founder of analytical psychology Carl Jung calls “the collective unconscious.”  We are all swimming in the same ocean and are more interconnected than we know.  There is –understandably so—a collective anxiety right now and if you’re not careful, is can hijack your state of being.

We deeply affect one another, whether we like it or not.  But when we begin to feel fearful or jumpy, it’s important to realize—energetically– what is ours and what is not ours.  And, it’s critical to know how to find your way home.

From my vault of favorite self-care practices, here are 6 ways to help you stay in your own boat:

• Be aware and alert–if you’re feeling off, know that it may not be you. Just acknowledging that you’re being affected by others can often help you shift and gain perspective.

• Be mindful of your media diet: who are you letting into your consciousness each morning, during drive time and throughout your work day? Negative news from radio, TV, newspapers and digital devices  can deeply affect our nervous systems and leave us in a constant “fight or flight” state. Be judicious about how, when and where you take in information.

• Slow down and breathe: the pace of the outside world is always faster than our internal pace. You’re a human being—not a robot. Don’t let others dictate the speed at which you move.

• Start your day intentionally –perhaps consider meditation (tips here): our external world is a reflection of our internal  world. It’s important to take time to weed and water the garden.

• Get out in nature: new research shows the powerful effect immersing ourselves in the outdoors can have on our nervous system. Walk barefoot (even for 5 minutes), grab a blanket and lie on your belly, stargaze, sit by a creek, take a hike–all good ways to quickly re-calibrate.

• Move your body: “The issues are in the tissues.” Walk, dance, do yoga or qi gong, swim, run – moving helps us to reconnect with our bodies, get out of our heads and shake off the funk.

There are a lot of frenzied folks out there speeding down the autobahn of life—move over into the slow lane and let them pass. And be compassionate with yourself. It’s a hard time to be a human. For all of us.

I’D LOVE TO SUPPORT YOU:  Interested in finding your center by joining me at an upcoming retreat or workshop? Check out my 2016-2017 retreat schedule. Or, email workshops at reneetrudeau dot com to explore hiring me to design a custom 1/2 day or full day work-life balance/resiliency workshop for your team, organization or group in 2017. P.S. Have a special friend in Texas who could use a self-renewal retreat? Only two spots left in our Nov. 11,  Austin, TX New Way of Being: Women’s Self-Renewal Retreat (gift certificates available). Nov. 9th at noon registration closes!

Subscribe here to Live Inside Out, a weekly blog written by stress management & resiliency coach/speaker and Career Strategists president, Renée Peterson Trudeau. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Good Housekeeping and more. Thousands of women in ten countries are becoming RTA-Certified Facilitators and leading/joining Personal Renewal Groups based on her award-winning curriculum.  She is the author of The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal and Nurturing the Soul of Your Family: 10 Ways to Reconnect and Find Peace in Everyday Life. She lives in Austin, Texas, with her husband and 14 year-old son. More on her background here.