Take. A. Break.

The mid-week edition of The Resilience Brief is always intended to help us finish the week strong. So, however this newsletter finds you, I hope the ideas below can help us all move forward successfully. If you enjoy, please consider passing it along to a friend.

My path to studying resilience was born out of anxiety. Despite my life actually being pretty darn good at the time, I was worried way too much, catastrophizing almost every situation, and consistently seeing the glass as half empty. I remember being totally confused and frustrated as to why I was over-thinking everything, worrying about a future scenario that would likely never come.

Imagine all of that energy wasted. I consider myself a creative person, and all of my creative reserves were being utilized to conjure up the worst possible scenarios. It was a wonder that I was able to produce anything in my day to day life as a marketer.

I was spending all of my energy on the ‘what if’ - when I should have been spending it on the ‘what is’. I had to find a way to forget the imagined future to focus on the present opportunity.

“They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.” - Seneca

I knew something needed to change, and that’s when I started studying the tools that I talk about today. It started with Mindfulness, then Stoicism, new breathing techniques, and evolved into the general theme of resilience that encompasses so many wonderful tools that are all free, easy to access, and simple to practice.

Mindfulness as the foundation.

I often wonder whether there is one specific tool that is more powerful than any other when it comes to resilience. From a personal perspective, I believe that so much of resilience is based on a foundation of mindfulness. Any sort of self-assessment, awareness, evolving perspective is based on our ability to find a moment of space.

I actually think this is what is troubling most of us these days - in a world of constant distractions, with our phone being the main offender, it’s more and more difficult to find (let alone create) the space.

Think about how some of us might unwind when we need a break. We often grab our phone to scroll through a bit of entertainment mindlessly. We tell ourselves that it’s relaxing, but it’s actually the complete opposite. When we are scrolling, we’re actively influencing our brain and body for more stress. It’s an endless list of different things happening all around the world, the platforms designed to keep us there, entranced.

And so, when we can’t find space, we end up letting emotions and reactions dictate our lives. For example…

• It’s difficult to practice gratitude if we’re in the middle of yelling at someone who cut us off in traffic.

• We can’t confidently navigate stress if we’re not aware that it is suffocating us.

• It’s near impossible to focus on what we can control when we are just trying to survive the day.

A simple mindful pause can help.

Three ways to practice.

Gratitude itself is an act of mindfulness, as is journaling, even going for a walk or noticing our environment (people watching, anyone?). There is also a ton of science behind the power of breathing and how it can help us create a positive reset in stressful situations. These are a few simple ways to take a break and create the space we need.

1. Gratitude. Take a simple item in your life right now. Imagine a basic pen and think about how fascinating this piece of technology is. The pen somehow has ink in it, or the miracle that it doesn’t leak all the time. Perhaps think about the wonder of how many amazing pieces of writing have been created because the pen simply exists. Who made the first pen? By mulling over these simple ideas in a positive, appreciative way, we allow our brain to focus on the good, and gratitude is in full swing.

2. Walking. A walk boosts our physical health by improving cardiovascular fitness and strengthening our body. It helps our mental well-being by reducing stress, improving our mood, and sparking creativity through the rhythmic movement. It’s also a low-impact activity, and accessible to almost everyone. Let’s leave the phone on our desks for 10 mins while we walk, otherwise we’re still going to be distracted.

3. Breathing. There is so much within the power of our breath, and many different techniques. However, the simple act of taking some deep breaths and focusing on where the breath is being felt in our body is an act of mindfulness. Is the breath coming in through our stomach, chest or throat? Wherever it is, feel it going there and notice your body expanding with every inhale, and relaxing with every exhale. That’s mindful.

These are super simple ideas, right? But I can tell you that they work. If we give just one of them a try today, we’ll start to build that space. Viktor Frankl summed it up perfectly: “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

Let’s find that space.

Until next time friends, stay resilient!

Carre @ Resilient Minds