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Who’s there?

Yeah, who’s there?? I wake up in the mornings lying in bed in the state between being asleep and awake. I love this moment when I go inside myself to assess the emotion that is dwelling inside of me. Sometimes I am feeling happy and energetic, and other days I am sluggish and irritable. On the days that I feel that I am not my best self upon waking up, the first thing I do is breathe deeply a few times working through what is causing the negative emotion. I view my negative emotion as an unwelcome guest taking up space behind my ribcage and around my heart. I tell the negative emotion it’s time to move out. “Pack your bags and go!” I have seen a pattern that this negative emotion moves in on nights when I have not taken care of myself for a few days. My head is usually swirling with work tasks and my thoughts are disorganized and erratic. I notice my breathing is shallow and my body feels tense. This is often the result of my over-eating, lack of exercise, lack of hydration and lack of time to myself. I acknowledge that it’s a “Do Over day” as we can only move forward and not wish the past away. My first course of action is box breathing for about 5 minutes (click here for my Regret Blog about breathing). I then drink 2 cups of water envisioning that I am flushing the negative emotion out of my body. I plan out clean meals for the day and then I feel the negative mood break apart and float out of my body.

I have noticed the things that stress me out are mostly the anticipation of my work projects or deadlines. Once I sit down and tackle these items they are usually not as bad as I anticipated, and the day goes smoothly. This reminds me of the saying: FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real. Using my own Do Over method, I identify my mood daily and take the necessary actions, so my days are generally happy and calm. Most importantly, I feel I am in control of my emotion vs. having the negative emotion drag me through my days. I choose happiness!

For Parents: Know that anxiety is a normal part of our emotional scale but watch for these signs in your children so that you can work on tools with them.

· Chronic sore stomach before school or an activity

· Fear or worry are more than temporary

· The anxiety does not go away and gets worse over time

· Child of any age is unable to function doing tasks that are age appropriate

If these signs are apparent, do not minimize or trivialize your child’s feelings as it’s very real to them. Sometimes the most well-meaning parents exacerbate their children’s anxiety by setting a high bar regarding academic, athletic, and social expectations. What causes anxiety in one child may not in another. Knowing your child is crucial to the foundation of conscious parenting.

If you need help in choosing happiness as your everyday mindset, or to build a toolbox for your child, I am here to guide with my Do Overs method.

~Andi

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