We all feel overwhelmed sometimes. Sometimes all the time. It doesn’t matter whether you have relatively few responsibilities or a ton of them. Whether you’re a full-time professional or stay-at-home-mom—or both. Overwhelm is subjective, just like stress and anxiety. What one person finds exciting or challenging, another can find, frankly, cause for a freak-out. Luckily, the tools that can come to the rescue when we feel overwhelmed or stressed are universally applicable. They work no matter what you’re facing. And help you keep living the maximized life you want.
Here are a few I’ve learned from years of yoga and mindfulness study and practice, my own life experience with anxiety and panic attacks, and have taught to academics, professionals, and parents through workshops at venues including the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, and corporations.
10 YOGA + MINDFULNESS TOOLS
1. Labelling thoughts. Thoughts are thoughts; it doesn’t matter if they’re worrying ones, planning ones, rehashing ones, or imagining ones. We can practice labelling our thoughts as simply “thinking”, or get more specific with “worrying”, “rehashing,” “planning,” or imagining. Either way, by labelling them we often find some space between our essential, ultimately calm and strong selves, and our worrying mind. The labels help us to recognize what’s happening and take charge of what’s happening in our head, rather than letting our monkey mind run the show. “I’m imagining, and I know I do that when I’m worried or feeling anxiety. It doesn’t actually help. So I’m going to let those thoughts go, and move onto something else.”
2. Be here now.The best something else we can move onto is this present moment. This moment, though it might seem overwhelming, can become a tool for anchoring into grounded stability and strength. Mindfulness techniques using our senses enable us to focus our attention and intention.
