WISHING YOU A MERRY CHRISTMAS
Dear IPC Friends,
Christmas is upon us and with it comes the joy the season brings but also the usual heartache, sadness, and fretting over Christmases past, lost loved ones, and high expectations. This year of course the sadness and isolation from the pandemic exponentially increases the sadness part.
All the research shows that isolation and loneliness are as bad for us as smoking. This is true for our mental and emotional health but also true for our physical health. As a way to navigate through the season, here are some practices that might help.
- Be aware of your feelings. Listen to your body. If it aches, is tight, tense, etc. it’s often telling us we need to pay attention to our emotional and mental health. For me it comes with tightness in my diaphragm.
- Be aware of the hijack. The hijack is the amygdala taking over to push fear hormones and what gets hijacked is our prefrontal cortex, our executive rational brain function. The hijack leads to incessant fear thoughts that feel like a hundred drunken monkeys in our brain. When you recognize it, do this:
- Practice this 5-4-3-2-1 exercise. Begin with a deep belly inhale from the bottom up for 4-5 seconds. Hold for 4-5 seconds. Breathe out slowly for 4-5 seconds. Do this 2-3 times.
See - 5 things to look at and see, saying them out loud. Notice something you haven’t before.
Feel - 4 things to feel in your body and say them out loud like the chair I’m sitting on.
Listen - 3 sounds to listen to attentively like the traffic, the birds, your breathing…Say them out loud
Smell - 2 things you can smell, find something to sniff if you need. Out loud.
Taste - 1 thing you can taste and say it out loud, like toothpaste, coffee, sour skittles (my fav.)
End with the same breathing exercise you started with.
Also, if you need, reach out and call someone you trust and share with them what you are going through. If you feel safe, call one of us at IPC. My number is 904-718-7777.
Finally, remember that Christmas is about incarnation. That means that the spiritual and Godly presence in life is found in the earthly, bodily, material places we live, both the good and the not so good.
If the Christmas story tells us anything it is, "that Jesus, born in a feeding trough, in a manger, with the threat of Herod hovering, God is found in the material world with us—embodied." So, our body, "the body" matters to pay attention to with all our senses.
Here’s wishing you an “embodied Christmas.” Breathe...
Steve
