One Habit to Shift Feelings of Unease and Anxiousness

Quiet can feel a little eery can’t it? And we go to great lengths to avoid it. We’ll check out some Netflix, scroll through Insta or read a book. But even this isn't quiet. It’s a distraction from the beauty that lies within quiet. 
 

When you feel like you’re losing your vision, your sight of what you want for yourself, or find you’re beginning to sound like everyone else, blindly following along without checking in to what you really really want or desire, this eerily quiet can be the best place to go.


The distractions keep us from hearing the quietness of our inner voice that can be heard most acutely saying “stop, please.”
 

Our bodies will cry at many levels to try and get our attention. It can be a physical ache, an anxious heart, the inability to focus and stay present. All in efforts (warning signs) to help us come back to connecting to ourselves.

What are the signs you’ve disconnected?

  • You find yourself shrinking in order to make others feel comfortable.
  • You stay quiet when you have so much to express.
  • You feel stuck in the wheel of shoudling and hustling that you’re ignoring your body’s signals to pause and reflect.
  • You're swimming in comparison leaving you treading through ache and judgement.


When you ride through the quiet, slow breath by slow breath, you get to face the glorious beauty that awaits on the other side. Clarity. Epiphanies. An answer to something that felt overwhelming impossible to solve earlier with a solution so obvious and simple. 
 

When you get really, really quiet, what are you craving inside? What do you notice in your quiet?

 
 
 

How to Remove the Stress of Taking a Day Off

“If someone is stressed or depressed, adding the guilt of having to lie because they need a day off makes things worse. “There’s an expectation that you’re going to come into work the next day with signs of a cold, or some visible ailment. When sometimes you just need a day off.”

The same is true for those who work inside the home - stay-at-home moms, caregivers, etc. 
 

A friend, a stay-at-home mom, whom after spending an afternoon at lunch and shopping with a friend, on returning home, kept her shopping bags in the trunk of her car. She feared being judged by her mother-in-law who was looking after the children, for spending her day not doing something “productive" like grocery shopping.
 

It’s okay to take a day off without needing visible proof that you needed this day.  The need is evident simply because you raised your hand and said: “I need a day off.” 
 

Can we let that be enough?
 

This is what mental health looks like. Taking care of yourself, head to toe, mind and body when you notice that you need a day to simply unplug. Taking care of yourself is being productive. 
 

These stories are samples of what I hear all the time of people who carry the stress and guilt that’s often associated with taking time to care for one's mental health. 
 

If this is something you struggle with please know that it’s entirely okay to take time for yourself, when you feel the need. And to return, whether it’s to the office or your own home, without “proof" that the time off was warranted. 
 

And if you’re someone who is prone to making sharp or sarcastic comments about those who take time off for whatever reason, can you hold your tongue?