Article by Katrien Maes
Image by pikisuperstar

Resources do three things: slow, lower and contain. They slow your experience down to a pace that is manageable. They lower the intensity of your experience so it is digestible. They contain your experience, enabling you stay in your body.

Internal resources balance the tendency toward being too far outside yourself and engaged in the world. If you feel overwhelmed and outside yourself, bring yourself home with some internal resources.

External resources can support you in coming out of your shell of stuckness. If you feel too far drawn into yourself, if you feel overwhelmed by emotions, then supporting yourself by connecting with the outher world can help.

Internal resources: the resources you can lean into internally. They are generated from within, always present as a wellspring for our reorientation.

Breathe
As a start, take slow, long, deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling evenly. Pay attention to the air moving in and out your nose. If you are feeling drained and low in energy, inhale a bit longer than you exhale. If you are feeling nervous, stressed, anxious or overstimulated and need to settle down, then better to exhale longer (up to twice as long) as you inhale.

Ground
Send your energy all the way down to your feet and connect with the ground. Imagine your feet are connecting all the way to the core of the earth. Feel your steadiness and rootedness. Especially when temperatures are low outdoors, keeping your feet warm by wearing warm socks or adding woolen insoles to your shoes can enhance this grounding experience.

Contact
Make contact with yourself by trying to connect to your emotions, thoughts, beliefs, and bodily sensations without judgment.
Look to yourself in the mirror, really look also without judgement, making eye contact with yourself, and smile to yourself.

External resources – the resources you can turn toward in nature and outside yourself as supports to reorient and land in your body and presence.

Nature
-take a walk and feel the breeze/the wind on your skin
-notice the quality of seasonal light
-Pay attention to a city skyline
-notice flowers or autumn leaves – the colors, the shape, the smell
-feel the rain or snow falling on your nose
-listen to the sounds of nature
-…

Nourishment
-eat a nourishing and satisfying meal – taste, smell, eat slow and consciously
-have a nourishing conversation with a friend, a relative, with someone you trust and love
-laugh with friends
-take a shower and become ready for the day, or take a shower or bath and wash off the day
-go for a therapeutic massage
-ask for a hug
-lean on a tree
-rest your head in your friend’s or partner’s lap
-…

Pleasure
-Seeking pleasure is one of the fastest ways to help you feel more alive and present.
-find this in the foods you love, the people you love, the fabrics on your skin that feel lovely to you, the beauty in small and bigger things,…
-listen to music, sing
-stay in your pyama’s for a day, or dress up if you like
-give yourself the gift of pleasure, whatever that is. These are not things you have ‘to earn’.

Creativity
-draw
-paint
-stack rocks by the side of the river, or find shells by the sea
-do a project with your children
-bake, make pottery, write a song,…

Play– the process of moving and engaging for no other reason than that it’s fun
-dance
-play games with your children or friends
-rollerskate, iceskate, do something crazy,…

…

Take good care of yourself.

Warm regards,
Katrien