What makes us feel better in a times of stress?
Feeling good and the ability to feel better in times of difficulty comes from many different sources in our lives.
These sources can be people, pets, objects or symbols. These can create satisfaction, happiness and or a sense of accomplishment. Knowing all of our sources are doing well can give us a sense of calm. As humans, I think we share so many of the same sources of fulfillment, happiness, and satisfaction.
What does this all mean when our sources are in harms way, or not doing well? It becomes a major source of negative stress, and discomfort. We experience a myriad of physical, mental, and emotional reactions. As a result we start to feel unhealthy, and unhappy. When life is "normal" we tend to reset these dominos and fix the problems to come back to our balance. What happens when our "normal" is not the same any more? For so many of us we have not experienced anything like COVID -19, it has changed everything for all of us. How do we manage and balance all the new dominos. How do we find sanity in our "temporary-new-normal"?
I keep coming back to what all humans understand from the day we're born, baby steps. We have to take baby steps for the things we haven't done before. For so many of us, our kids, partners, roommates are now home all the time. Our pets are looking at us wondering when we're leaving so they can take a nap, they're exhausted. Baby steps are the only thing I know how to do when I am overwhelmed. Now is the time to take baby steps to work towards your goals.
What we are not doing is over scheduling ourselves. What makes us feel better in a time of negative stress? Baby steps to a renewed living environment, baby steps to the project you keep putting off, baby steps to going for a walk with your loved ones, baby steps to cooking more meals from home and helping yourself, family or even roommates eat healthier. All of these things will help you feel better in times of immense negative stress. We have been handed an unexpected mandate to slow down, to stay home and recalibrate. Find what makes you feel better now. I look forward to your feedback and your ideas for taking baby steps in your life. We all need to help each other find our new sense of balance. Through support and discussions with our communities, we can pursue goals that make us feel accomplished. I am practicing baby steps. Will you please join me?