Sound like you? It definitely sounds like us. Sometimes multiple times a day. Some days multiple times an hour! Yeeesh! Something triggers us and we get yanked out of ourselves and our here and now and thrown into a raging storm of chaos and we ride the waves, trying not to drown or gulp too much water until the sun comes out again and calm envelopes us. Sounds like a tired metaphor, no? How close to real though? Sigh
For the longest time it felt like this was just life as we lived it and we would frantically cling to tools in the moment and anchor for a minute or two until we could catch our breath. And you know what? It always helped. Always. But, for us, it was always short lived. Sigh
And then there are those moments when the air feels so still and the water so stagnant that we can't move and we just lie there drifting into nothingness. Sound familiar? Yep, good old freeze and, if we are extra lucky, collapse. Guess what we learned? In those moments, we have to actually do the opposite! Calming activities make it worse. We have to wake the nervous system up. Go for a walk, get out in the fresh air, MOVE our body. Sound like a cliche overload? But again, pretty accurate, yeah? But oh soooooooo tiring! Sigh
Then we stumbled upon a bit of a clever trick for both states - daily practice! The counterpart to a frequently dysregulated nervous system would be frequent moments of regulation, right? Not rocket science. But not easy either. Or, at lease, we find it hard. But, we're doing it anyway.
So here we are sharing our daily practice of PAUSE. BREATHE. CHECK IN. Clearing the clutter and finding me, myself and I in the present moment.
And we invite you to follow along and let's keep each other on track? Or try to at least, some days are still pretty bumpy. Sigh
Create your own or feel free to riff off ours. Sometimes it's just hard to know where to start, isn't it? Follow along and let our ideas inspire yours: you can copy and embellish or go off on a whole other tangent that delights and frights you (and we are always keen to hear new ideas)
If you're feeling brave, post your versions in our comment feed so others can be inspired too. Or upload to your own social media (be sure to use our hashtags - #veryhumanregulation - so we can find each other). Either way, make sure to comment on posts by others and encourage one another as we all drop our anchors and find what's in the stillness (or the fire)
The only rules are: please be supportive and encouraging!
See you in there!
The Very Human Beings
