CALMING THE INTERNAL STORM SELF-HEALTHCARE PRACTICE

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This is a simple practice that we can employ anytime and anywhere. This helps calm the inner storm in times when we feel hijacked by fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, or we're struggling to sort our thoughts, feelings or beliefs that are causing internal disruption:

1. SEE the feeling/sensation/thought as a leaf floating on the air or a bird gliding past in the breeze. Just notice without attaching to it, just watch, be the observer.

2. LABEL it as the observer, "I see you fear", "I see you anger", "ah, there you are again death", "I feel you envy"(Thomas Keating calls these afflicted emotions, Thich Nhat Hanh calls them habit energies)

3. ACKNOWLEDGE it, label the disruptive feeling/experience as an observer... "I notice I'm thinking thoughts about death...I notice I'm feeling fear again...I notice my heart is racing...I notice my hands are sweating" etc. Try to notice & locate where in your body you feel it (creates a bridge between your mind & body sensations).

4. BREATHE with it. Once in contact with what is happening in your internal landscape, tune in more intentionally to your breath. Deepening the inhale and completely exhaling:
a. Deeply inhaling "peace"
b. Completely exhaling "calm"
Choose words that resonate with you.

5. Repeat 1-4 with patience & kindness towards yourself, as if you were comforting a child in distress. To go deeper, as if you are the child in distress.

This practice combines a variety of methods to help create space between yourself and the internal disruption, giving the emotional charge a chance to dissipate and your mind a chance to calm.

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