Three Simple Steps To Beginning Inner Calm
December 31, 2006
Contributing Writer: Julie Fisher
As one of today's
professional women, you face ever-increasing demands on your time.
This demand creates stress and fatigue. It not only wears you out and
makes you feel badly, but also ages you faster than you might like.
Fortunately there are some strategies you can employ to regain the
balance that you desperately need to support your complete
well-being.
So what can you do? All three of the following
strategies have been proven successful and, in combination, are
incredibly powerful catalysts towards finding a perfect balance
between work, home, and other demands.
One: Create
Silence — Set aside small windows of time in your day to
meditate or enjoy complete silence.
Two: Release Worry
— Find strategies and tools to release those things that are
creating stress.
Three: Build Support — Create a
support network of people who understand, who you support and who can
be depended on when times get tough. Begin by supporting others and
you will find that it comes back to you if you allow it.
Beginning your journey towards balance
The strategies listed above are best tackled in the order listed
but are beneficial regardless of how many you accomplish or the order
in which you try them.
The simple enjoyment of silence, or
meditation, is a wonderful first step toward healing your mind. This
practice will allow your mind to begin to build new networks of
thought and new, stronger, more supportive perspectives. Just as it’s
been proven that an athlete’s muscles need periods of rest to
allow peak performance, our minds also need periods of complete
silence (or rest), in order to allow optimal functioning.
Quieting
the mind can be quite challenging for anyone who spends the vast
majority of her time strategizing, thinking, planning and
contemplating. Sometimes complete silence is overwhelming and the
mind begins to race, so if you find that this happens, try a 5-minute
guided meditation or listening to the sounds of nature (water is
always good) as a first step in learning to rest your mind. Choose
what feels best, and if you don’t know where to begin, then
guided meditation, which can be found on tape, CD or even downloaded
on the web, can be the perfect solution.
The second phase of
beginning a life of balance can be accomplished with a mind that is
open to trying out new perspectives. There are lots of ways to make
new choices about those things that create stress in our lives.
Simple shifts in perspective can be accomplished by simply asking,
“Am I creating the stress? Might I be adding to the stress? Or
can I choose to let this go and release the stress?” If the
answer to even one of these questions is “maybe” or
“yes,” then the next step is to dig a bit deeper.
Knowledge is a powerful thing and when you realize that it’s
not you, but rather your repeating patterns of thinking that are
causing you additional stress, you are well on your way to finding
new perspectives and solutions. I recommend reading books like Wayne
Dyer’s, There’s a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem,
while you work with a coach who specializes in empowering and forward
movement. Or simply read and do some introspection to begin. Just
knowing that you are larger than your worries and separate from them
is a giant step towards knowing that you can overcome them.
The
third phase has to do with building a network of supportive friends
and colleagues. This isn’t work or magic or even a chore, this
is about giving and receiving. As people, we don’t realize how
much impact we have on the world around us. You may be a giver and
yet argue that you never receive. Or you may be someone who receives
but rarely gives. The universal force behind those times when giving
and receiving don’t match up is our resistance to one or the
other. If you feel as though you always give, but never receive, I
challenge you to look at all the times you turned down help that was
offered. Begin accepting the helping hand and life will balance
itself out.
I am a firm believer that we were placed here to
help each other and I have found over the years, that when I need a
special support person to show up in my life, that person always
shows up. Begin to notice who shows up for you, and I bet you will
find that a network is ready to form right before your very eyes. You
simply need to be watching so that you don’t miss it. We all
need a little support sometime, and on a day that you’ve tried
everything else and life still feels too demanding, a supportive
friend will hold you up while you regain the strength to tackle it.
To immediately lessen the stress in your life:
meditate or enjoy silence — just quiet your mind
release those things that are creating stress
build a support network (be a support partner for others and accept their help in return)
You’ll find yourself in a better place almost immediately
and you will soon start noticing the balance returning. Expect that
life will show up perfectly balanced in the not too distant future,
but don’t forget to follow this plan for more than a few days.
You may even want to keep it as a permanent part of your newly
balanced life. It works!
================================
About
the Author: Julie Fisher, complete well-being coach and owner of Sol
Journe, LLC, as well as President of Advertising by Design, Inc.
provides coaching and mentoring for professional women all over the
world. Register for her free e-course and e-coaching at
http://womenbalanceworkandhome.abundanceforwomen.com
================================
Source:
www.isnare.com
================================
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