Prevention
Building up resources
Examples of social and personal resources:
- Informational support: help with problem solving, getting information and feedback, talking about problems
- Instrumental support: borrowing things/money, practical help in everyday life
- Emotional support: closeness, experiencing positive feelings together
- Mental support: Shared ideas about life, values, sharing norms
- Social integration and social support: social relationships and networks. (Kaluza, 2018)
Building resilience
In psychology, resilience is understood to be a person’s ability to withstand stress and difficult life situations, and sometimes even to grow from them.
The interaction of the following factors helps to strengthen resilience: acceptance, solution orientation, self-efficacy expectation, future orientation
More on this in my individual coaching
Relaxation methods
Try out different methods and see which one suits you best. For example: Progressive muscle relaxation (PMR), Qi Gong, Tai Chi, imaginery journeys, body scans, breathing exercises (e.g. alternate breathing, 4-4-4-4 breathing), yoga.
Meditation
Many people find it difficult to do an open meditation (without music and guidance). You can therefore start with a guided meditation and gradually work your way up to open meditation.
Gratitude
Keep a journal (preferably daily) of the moments and people in your life that you are grateful for. To make a routine out of this, it is helpful to first use this as a conscious ritual. Take time on a certain day (20-30 minutes), create a sacred space where it is quiet, make it nice (candles, favorite tea, incense…whatever it is for you) and write down everything you are grateful for. You can also make a list of ten sentences, memorize them and say them to yourself over and over again.
Change your perspective: Growth mentality instead of limitation
Consider the challenges as messages, a call for change. They often signal the need to let go of outdated beliefs or behaviors and embrace growth.
Affirmation: Every challenge is an opportunity to learn and develop.
Expand your comfort zone
Take small risks. This helps to develop flexibility and adaptability. Put yourself in unfamiliar situations, take a different route to work or try new foods/dishes.
Create a “first aid” book
In exceptional emotional situations and periods of stress, we usually forget what tools we have to overcome challenges. It is therefore helpful to have the methods, resources and strategies that support us in a small booklet.
Write down everything that has helped you in challenging times and that has been effective for you.
Binaural beats
Binaural beats are an acoustic phenomenon that occurs when two sounds with slightly different frequencies are heard simultaneously, each in one ear. The brain then perceives a pulsating sound whose frequency corresponds to the difference between the two output frequencies. Example: If a 440 Hz tone is heard in the left ear and a 444 Hz tone in the right ear, the brain perceives a pulsating 4 Hz tone. The presumed effect of binaural beats is based on the idea that they can influence brain wave activity
Recommendation: Marconi Union “Weightless”
Affirmations
- I trust that everything will work out for my highest good
- I am enough. I have enough.
- I let go of what no longer serves me.
- I am strong, I am resilient and I am able to renew myself.
- I allow myself to feel negative emotions and then let them go.
- I am valuable and lovable just as I am.
- I accept myself, with all my strengths and weaknesses.
- I believe in my abilities and trust my inner compass.
- I am proud of what I have achieved so far.
- I am strong, brave and self-confident.
Moments of gratitude and joy
When you feel gratitude and joy, pause for a moment and soak up the feeling with every pore of your body and all your senses. Memorize the feeling in your body so that you can call it up in difficult phases.
Change your perspective: Letting go of control and expectations
Realize that we cannot control the outside, we can only control our inner reaction.
Say goodbye to certain expectations about how a situation should look. We are part of a complex system and we have no influence on our environment (this applies to people, but also to nature, for example).
Reflect on fear
You are ready to move out of your comfort zone, but then scarcity mindsets arises. Take time to reflect in such moments:
- What fears come up when you face the unknown? Name them.
- What are your triggers of fear during transitions or challenges? Are they worst case scenarios?
If worst case scenarios are prevalent: Write them down in detail and then burn the paper. Let go.
Also reflect on the following questions:
- What effect does holding on to the old have on your life?
- What are the positive consequences of holding on?
- Which situations do you avoid and why?
- What routines determine your everyday life?
- What blockages prevent you from taking a step towards change?
- What fears arise when you want to leave your comfort zone?
First Aid
Quick help
- 4-7-8 Breathing exercise
- Binaural beats
- Hold a crystal for grounding and stability
- Affirmation: I am in the here and now
“I am here and now”
Pause and focus on what you can immediately perceive with your senses in overwhelming and stressful situations:
- I see
- I smell
- I touch
- I hear
- I taste
Grounding exercises
When we are faced with challenges, our heads spin and we lose our grip on the ground. Walk barefoot, this connects you to the earth and gives you the feeling of “having ground under your feet”.
Sit next to a tree trunk, place your hands on the roots of the tree and feel its strength. Connect with the tree and anchor yourself in the ground.
Be aware of your emotions
Allow all emotions and consciously perceive them. Feel them. Where do they show up in your body? You can set yourself a time frame (e.g. 10-15 minutes).
Acknowledge every feeling, accept that you have positive and negative feelings and then let go of the negative ones.
Affirmation: “I acknowledge this feeling. It is part of my experience, but it does not define me”.
Energy work for inner and energetic balance
When your energy centers, the chakras, are in balance, it is easier for you to face challenges and trust the process.
I highly recommend chakra chanting – a simple yet powerful practice! Sit comfortably and take three deep breaths into your belly through your nose and out through your slightly open mouth. Chant each sound four times, concentrating on the corresponding area of your body.
Example: Root chakra, chant Lam and imagine red light flowing down your tailbone, lower back, pubic bone and intestines.
- Lam – root chakra (red)
- Vam – sacral chakra (orange)
- Ram – solar plexus (yellow)
- Yam – heart chakra (green or pink)
- Ham – Throat chakra (light blue)
- Om – third eye and crown chakra (indigo and violet)
This exercise raises your vibration and balances your energy.
Energy healing: Reiki
During a Reiki session, the universal life energy is channeled through the use of symbols and transmitted from the Reiki practitioner to the recipient. Reiki helps to activate the universal life energy and restore inner balance. By transferring energy through the laying on of hands or over physical distance, blockages can be released, self-healing powers strengthened and a state of deep relaxation achieved.
I offer Reiki sessions (online, in German and English, you can find more information here.