When you’re in the middle of overwhelm, it can feel like everything is out of your control and you don’t know what you can do about it. I know that because that’s how I felt.
What did I do to get away from that feeling? I took control of one thing, starting with my morning routine,
It would be great to say that that was easy and I want to reassure you that it really was not. I wasn’t really ready to want to take any decisions and over the next few weeks, I will share with you some of the choices I made and where I am with them now.
What I could do, though, was try to take control of one thing.
Now it actually doesn’t matter what that one thing is and you might have an idea of what would work for you. If you do, I’d love to know your one thing in the comments.
On the other hand, even that one thing might be too much for you to make a decision about. In which case here are some things you could try…
1] Sit and drink your breakfast coffee without doing anything else. Don’t look at your phone or think about your day. Just take the time it takes to drink your drink to sit in silence.
2) Take 5 balanced breaths. Count to 6 as you breathe in and 6 as you breath out.
3) Take a minute to look out of the window. It doesn’t matter if it’s dark outside. What can you see or hear? What’s there that you didn’t expect. What can you notice you haven’t noticed before?
4) Take a moment to think about a person or a pet that matters to you. Send your positive feeling out towards them, even if they aren’t with you.
5) Look at something that makes you smile. It could be a photograph, something funny or just a reminder of something you really enjoyed. If you possibly can, try not to have it on your phone.
I hope these ideas have helped you spend a minute to start the day on your own terms, once you can do this, you have the first step towards coming back to yourself.
Let me know if you tried any of them and how you felt when you did.