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Showing posts with the label reduce overwhelm

Do you ever feel so overwhelmed with everything you need to do that you don't do anything at all?

Psychologists have a name for that. It is actually part of our stress response system. You might have heard of the fight or flight response. Psychologists have recently recognized a third characteristic of this response which is freeze . The freeze response is a way of protecting us from danger by a sort of  camouflage with not moving; you become "invisible." The thing is, our stress response automatically triggers regardless if it's an actual life and death situation or psychological stress. When you are overwhelmed and feeling stressed out, it's vital to reduce the intense feelings. I have another post that goes into more detail about TIPP skills they use in DBT , and you can click on the link here for that post. Once you reduce the intense emotions, then you can think cognitively. What I'm going to talk about in this post is more of a preventative measure, and by doing the skills, you will hopefully prevent feeling overwhelmed. Like anything else, they

Stress can cause you to relapse

  We all experience stress, but it can be detrimental to our recovery to reduce the overwhelming stress. Here are several ways you can reduce stress in your life. 1.       Practice meditation . All you need is 5 minutes a day to start with your meditation practice. It's all about consistency. It's kind of like going to the gym. It is more beneficial to go to the gym several times a week and work out for half an hour than going once a week and working out for two hours. Meditation practice consists of anything from self-guided meditation to listening to music or listening to Mother Nature. It helps to focus on your breathing and allow yourself just to be. It is perfectly normal for your mind to wander. When it does, just gently and nonjudgmentally bring it back to your breath. That is the exercise. Meditation is the practice of your mind wandering, and you bringing it back to the present moment. When your mind is at ease, it is less likely to be stressed. If you practice medit