The LOVEolution » Finding Time for Self-Love When You’re Stressed Out

Simply Serenity

Inspiration for inner peace and love by Lauralyn, a yoga and angel therapist.

Finding Time for Self-Love When You’re Stressed Out

April 29th, 2010

During times of stress, one of the most challenging things to do is to ask yourself, “how can I be kinder to myself? How can I show myself some more love right now?”

Just one stressful thought can trigger the fight or flight response, immediately putting the brain and body on high alert. Thinking about self-care and nurturing gets pushed to the side as survival instincts jump in full force like a SWAT team. The mind starts strategizing, rationalizing, jumping from one thought to another. A racing and pacing mind and body thinks it’s getting somewhere, and even if it is, what is the cost mentally, physically, emotionally and spiritually? Operating in this way leaves you feeling overwhelmed during the day and exhausted at the end of it.

Life doesn’t have to be that way.

So what’s the answer? How do you evolve an ancient primary reaction to those stressful times? You do the opposite of what you’ve been taught to do. You make time for yourself, and take a time out. You just say no to everything for a slot of time during the day when you sit outside, close your eyes and just be for a while. Setting the alarm just 10 minutes earlier to meditate can change the course of your day. It can actually alter your perception of time so it works for you. That’s the irony, when we’re stressed out we think we don’t have the time, but time is always available and willing to work with us. If you wake up thinking ” there’s not enough,” take a moment to ask yourself, “what is there really not enough of in my life? What am I so scared of?”

A 10-minute meditation that includes a gentle awareness of the breath, has the capacity to transform those fearful thoughts into loving thoughts. Fearful thoughts lead to behavior that often cut ourselves off from loving and nurturing our own being, we end up being last on the list of things to-do, or not on that list at all. Love brings us back to our real priority: our Self. If our inner core is off balance, run down, resentful, exhausted, running in circles, this will have a ripple effect that moves from your inner world to your outer world. The effect: more reasons to stress.

But when you choose to say, this moment belongs to me everything shifts. Notice how you feel when you say: I’m not giving this moment to my job or my friends or family, this very moment is all mine; this is my daily gift to myself to restore peace of mind and give me the strength and compassion to be able to give more, regardless of how much life is asking from me. You will be able to give more when you receive daily doses of self-love. That is empowerment. There is no need to feel guilty or apologize for seizing a moment to yourself. This is self-preservation. Loving ourselves ultimately is the most generous act there is because it allows us to be kinder and really present for others. Self-love is how we are able to maintain a sense of peace and awareness even when things feel unstable or burdensome around us. Self-love helps us realize we are not the stress, the task, the problem to solve. We are observers, experiential souls, gracefully shifting our awareness between states of being and doing. We can choose to observe through narrow lenses or broad ones. The broader the view, the clearer you will see both the situation, and yourself.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” Aristotle
©2010 Lauralyn Harter

www.heavenhealingarts.com