Have you noticed lately, that life feels like navigating a minefield?

Every conversation you initiate could lead to uncivil discourse. Every swipe of the screen could bring you to something that triggers your (algorithmically baited) emotions. And every moment behind the wheel of a car…

We are distracted. Disgusted. Dysregulated.

We have become short-fused. Moving through the days in a state of hyper-vigilance. Our emotions sit so close to the surface. Always waiting for another shoe to drop. Always ready to fight, or flee.

So many of us are having trouble turning off our worry, having trouble sleeping, digesting, or coping with even minor inconveniences.

What can we do to make things (if not better) easier?

This is not a rhetorical question. What can you actually do?

The most important thing to do, first and foremost, is regulate your own nervous system. You cannot thrive- you can barely survive– if you are stressed all of the time. Your sympathetic nervous system needs a rest.

In times of great stress we often reach for the things seem to bring us relief. Things that give us a quick dopamine spike. Those things will offer us temporary comfort, but they don’t allow our parasympathetic nervous system to do its job.

You need to balance out the stress with some (forced) rest.

Try this-

Sit down. Or stand if you’re too antsy to sit. Use your hands (or your mind) to draw an imaginary circle around yourself. That is your circle of intention.

Place your hands over your heart and press them down into your chest. Take a long, slow, deep inhale. Hold it for one second. Exhale sooo verrry slowly. Do it again.

Think about softening your face. Unclench your jaw. Shrug your shoulders up on an inhale. Let them down on a big exhale. Press your hands into your chest. Do it again.

Repeat to yourself- I am right here in this moment. I am right here in my body. I am right here with my breath. Keep breathing slowly and deeply.

Imagine that invisible circle growing up from the floor, like a forcefield all around you.
Nothing from the outside can get in. It’s just you. In your invisible ‘cone of silence’. Breathing slowly and deeply. Here in this moment. Here with my body. Here with my breath. Again and again.

Remember that you are not trying to suppress your feelings. You are not trying to control them. You are tying to make some space, so that they might pass through you more easily. And if they choose to linger, rather than passing through, sit with them and breathe with them. Soften into them, so that they might soften into you. So that you might better manage your actions, and your reactions.

Eventually, with practice, you will be able to activate that force field wherever you are, whenever you need to. By turning inward. Remembering your intention. And breathing mindfully.

You will be able to sweep the minefield with your breath wherever you go.

If things are really unmanageable for you right now, make an appointment with your medical doctor and/or therapist. A conversation with a professional listener or a medical prescriber might be what you need to get yourself to place where you can try to rest and recover for a while.