Gone are the days we grew up in. The World we are living in has undergone a massive change; beginning with COVID and then everything that followed. There is mostly chaos everywhere; be it in work, in personal life or just life, in general. There is no break from stress, because we are always in the ‘what next’ stage. We know we have no control over most of the things in life, yet we give up on sleep and over think. There are times when we know exactly what we are supposed to do to slow down but we just don’t find the time or we just don’t feel like it and push it aside saying – ‘let us start tomorrow’. But, we ourselves know that there is no tomorrow. If we don’t start today, then we don’t start it at all, period!
I have myself seen this happen with me. I have tools at hand to pause and slow down. However, I just feel let me just finish off this, this and this and then begin. That ‘then begin’, unfortunately never happens. Unless we decide to let go of our stress and overthinking habit, we will not be able to move forward. Most of us do not know what tool to use and we think it requires lot of time and energy to do that. I am, here to tell you that it is not that difficult, my friend. It requires 5 to 10 minutes every day, believe me. What is more important is consistency. You cannot do for 30 minutes one day and just not do it at all for the next 10 days after that. What we have to do is build habits consistently, bit by bit.
How do we pause?
We just need to work on small habits like ditching your phone usage first thing in the morning and last thing before sleeping. Instead of seeing your phone as soon as you wake up, just use an alarm clock and wake up 5 minutes earlier than usual and just spend time with nature. Just cherish the greenery (if you don’t have greenery around where you live, just stand in your balcony or garden and savor the sky. See the changing colors and appreciate it. Instead of scrolling before bed, pick up a book to read for 5 minutes or pick up a journal or notebook to write for 5 minutes about how your day went.
How do we reflect?
We see what is the thing we find is troubling us. Once we find out about it, we try to see how we can set it right. If, for instance, you feel you are waking up very tired, then find the root cause. It could be that you are sleeping very late or you are not feeling rested despite sleeping for long due to an underlying stress.
How do we reset?
Once you have found out the root cause, then we find ways or tools to reset. If stress is eating you up, just pick up a sketchbook and do random doodling or a coloring book and color. If it is overthinking that is the root cause, then pick up your journal or notebook and write down your thoughts. Once you do that you realize that you were basically living in your head as most of the thoughts that we get is just our fear of ‘what if’.
Now that you have this handy, why not promise yourself to start right away, just one thing, it can be anything which helps you pause, reflect and reset.
Hope you enjoyed reading this. See you again soon, with something interesting.
Love,
Vaishnavi
If colouring helps you slow down, explore our Colouring Books Collection.
If writing helps quiet your thoughts, discover our Planners & Journals Collection.