This week I've been feeling very,
Very anxious.
I've got a big life change on the horizon.
I'm moving across the country.
It's come about very suddenly and there's a huge amount to get done.
And it's made way,
Way more complicated by the fact that seven cats and dogs are coming too.
And my mind won't stop spinning with all the possibilities and all the stuff that's got to get done.
And my usual reaction to these kind of challenges is to use all the adrenaline and all the energy to plan and to organize,
To make lists,
To get stuff moving quickly.
And that's great,
That's useful.
But once the planning's done and the plans are in place,
My head just hasn't stopped.
I'm replaying all the thoughts.
I'm replaying what might happen.
And if you'll forgive the pun,
I'm catastrophizing constantly.
When I get stressed,
My brain goes into a spin.
It starts constantly replaying the same scenarios and conversations and outcomes.
And as soon as I think that I've resolved one thing,
I go on top of it,
Two more pop up.
And then when I've rattled around those two things for a while,
The first one comes back and it's accompanied by several more.
It feels like a never-ending stream of thoughts and feelings and more thoughts and more feelings.
And to be honest,
It's really,
Really uncomfortable.
And after five or six days of this,
I woke up this morning just feeling exhausted and broken from it all.
And then I finally managed to stop and to listen to the voice of my intuition and it said,
Just go within.
Stop trying to fix all the thoughts and to think away the feelings and just go within.
Take your time,
Go to that place where there's real peace and strength and stillness.
And of course,
I'm like,
Well,
There's no time to meditate and I need to get on and I'm like,
Whoa,
Stop.
Meditate anyway,
Do it anyway,
Do it longer and use the techniques that you know work.
Use the breath,
Observe the body and the mind,
Begin to accept what you find and then choose a point of focus and begin to think some good thoughts.
And so that's what I did.
And finally,
It felt like a dam had broken.
The anxiety didn't completely leave but my feelings began to shift from that awful anxious feeling to peacefully excited.
It became so much more manageable and I've had a much better day because of it.
And as I tend to do,
I like to make meditations around whatever I'm going through at the moment.
So I've turned this experience into a couple of new meditations for you to try.
There's a free 10-minute version that does the job nicely and a much longer one that gives you a bit more space to go deeper.
They're both called Ease Your Overactive Mind.
If this feels helpful,
Keep an eye out for those and give them a try.
And please let me know what you think in the comments.
And I'd love to hear what challenges it is that you're facing at the moment.
Thanks for listening.
Thanks for supporting me and have a great day.
