Are You Stuck in Grief, or Fight or Flight?

​When we look at nature, we see two common things: shake and still. Let's break that down a little and see how it can help you move towards your center and out of that emotional looping.  And I am going to add two energy work ideas for you, too. 

We often see our bodies move into shaking, twitching, or unease when there is too much energy happening.  Very often, a great course of action is to "shake it off" by letting our body move shiver, shake, vibrate, and move that energy off and out of us.  If you have a vibration plate, getting on that and letting your whole body wiggle can even be useful for this.  But so can turning on some music and really getting the wiggle going, and the arms up and down, letting that energy release and go.  

---

Energy tip: 

Take your right hand, and put it on your left shoulder, and run your hand down your arm, and over your hand, and off the fingers into the air.  Then repeat that by placing your left hand on your right shoulder, running the hand down the arm and across the hand, and off the fingers into the air.  Move that energy off of you, similar to what you might do in the bath if you had suds all up your arm, and you were wiping them down and off. Repeat that a few times, just do equal amounts for the left arm and the right arm. 

Bonus tips: You can do this with your legs, too! Just place your hands on your thighs and whoosh down your legs.  Now if you are flexible enough to go all the way to your feet and off your toes, great! But if you can only go as far as your knees or mid-shin, also great. 

And you can even reach around, put your hands on your bum, and swoosh that energy down and off.  

​And now, still, this one is simple too, but not always as easy.   You are just going to be still, find a place to sit down, no tv, no radio, no phone, just sit in stillness. Set a timer and do three minutes.  Once you are good at that do five minutes, then 10.  You don't have to silence your mind, but do silence your lips; no talking.  Silence and stillness.  

Much in the same way that an animal will go and lie down quietly and recover.  You are allowing the stillness to your nervous system.  And you might want to keep a box of tissues nearby because you might even release and cry.  The act of letting your body and nervous system come back to a place of stillness allows it to start to heal. Again, you don't have to quiet your mind, but you will, over time, get to a place of even the mind being quiet.  The point is the stillness, not using outside stimulation and noise to keep you moving, but instead just the stillness. 

Energy Tip: 

Very often, we become locked into a place where our energy is no longer flowing, because it's seeking some stillness.  So your right side and left side are no longer in motion together, but instead separately.  It's similar to how we swing our arms when we walk; our whole body is in motion, as opposed to how you might pretend to be a robot with stiffer movements.  

​A simple way to fix that is to stand up and raise your left leg, as if you were marching, and your right arm.  Then put the foot back down and the arm back to your side, and do the opposite.  Raise your right leg and your left arm.  

If that's too hard for you, and it might be if you are really locked into an energy pattern that is no longer crossing over, then do it seated.  Or seated, take your right hand and tap your left thigh, then your left hand and tap your right thigh.

​Back and forth, whichever position you choose, do each side at least 5 times, or longer until you yawn.  

Then go and do your stillness sit.  
​
You really can retrain your mind, body, and nervous system back to a place of being centered and at peace. 

---