Give Yourself a 15 Minute Reset

If you have been depressed or upset about January, ugh, same. This year has been pretty rough already. Let's set up a relaxing space together and then let me teach you how to use it! Btw-This is a low-glam session. This is designed specifically for calming your brain.

Here are a few things you can do at home, to feel better in your body, if you don't feel safe leaving. Let's set up your space.

1. Find a place to rest. a bed, couch, recliner, porch swing, floor, hammock, etc. Establish this space as your resting space. If you can, keep it set up and ready to go for future rests. Its so nice to know that its there waiting for you.

2. Set the Temperature. Grab a fuzzy blanket, a soft cool sheet, a heating pad, ice packs, weighted blanket, tons of pillows, whatever you want. Get the temperature right.

3. Set the mood. Candles/music/meditation/noise canceling headphones/lighting/eye mask/etc.

4. Get a drink, go pee, wear clothes that you wont think about.

5. Set the timer. 15 minutes. 30 minutes. Just set a timer...and make sure the alarm is not annoying. Set phone to do not disturb. Its only 15 minutes. Love yourself for 15 minutes out of the 10,000 minutes you have in a week.

6. Relax. This is it, once you're all set up, this is your time to break. Don't move a ton, or at all, focus on your breathing. It doesn't have to be in the nose out the mouth, just breath. If you can't stop thinking, spend time imagining a room with nothing in it. Anytime you think of something, kick it out of the room. Keep the room empty. Imagine every breath you take, you're blowing the thoughts out of the room. When your 15 minutes are up, try to come out of it like you're exiting savasana. Wiggle your fingers and toes, stretch, come back to awareness. (don't set an alarm if you want to not move for a bit.)

7. Bonus: give yourself a massage. Keep a bottle of lotion/oil near your space and give yourself a little massage, neck/shoulders, arms, hands, feet-if you can, face, or brush your hair. This should be done before the relaxation part.

When you get a massage, half the work is completed by setting up a a relaxing space. A lot of the relaxation from a massage session also comes from anticipation of someone else doing the work for you, but you're already doing so much of the work just by existing in a relaxing space. If you set up a space and make a ritual of repeating the exact same steps, you'll eventually get to a point where you can easily slip into a relaxed state and it wont be so much work to turn off your brain. Your brain will eventually understand that it doesn't have to work here because the space is doing the work for it.

I recommend after setting up your relaxing space, to use it multiple times a week, even daily. This is as necessary as getting good sleep every night. Establishing your own place of safety and peace is an incredibly powerful tool, take advantage of this tool. Its already there. Find it and use it.

<3

Thanks for reading!

Cheryl