Hello and congratulations on finishing Insight Timer's 15-day Strategies for Stress Challenge.
This is Alyssa Eppel once again.
I'm here to help you wrap things up and suggest a way to incorporate some of the strategies you learned into your daily routine.
We started off day one together with a stress inventory.
I know it may have been stressful to see all the things you're dealing with on one list.
The list might feel different to you now or the list might have changed.
I hope the challenge showed you or reinforced for you that while to some extent we can change our situations,
But in almost all cases we can change how we respond to those situations.
We can relieve some of the heavy burden of stress that we carry.
I know you just heard about exercise.
Brief bursts of exercise is one of my favorite instant strategies.
Think about adding jumping jacks or a vigorous vinyasa pose to diminish strong feelings of anxiety that would otherwise linger on.
Let's go back to day one.
Think about that list.
Is there something you realized you're stuck with that you can give yourself a break from thinking about,
From trying to control?
Recall this can feel like trying to move a boulder,
Pulling on a rope.
Can you right now try to drop the rope each day?
Can you drop the baggage at least for a brief while?
Can you get off the worry cycle?
Can you choose wonder and curiosity over worry?
Now a question I didn't ask you back then.
Is there something,
Some obligation on your list that you can delete or delegate or gently wind down to create more spaciousness in your day?
Or are there boundaries that you can better set to help generate this space?
Let's recall any insights you might have had over the past 15 sessions.
Was there something you heard and thought,
This is what I needed to hear.
This is the wisdom I want to remember.
You might want to write down a key phrase on a post-it,
Post it near your bed,
Fridge,
Your dashboard,
Or in all of these places.
We always need help remembering.
Lastly,
Recall one practice that really resonated with you.
Is there something you instantly thought,
Yes,
This helps.
Okay.
So how can you build that more into your routine?
It might be something like remembering self-compassion or releasing embodied stress with a quick body scan or metabolizing stress with a brief burst of exercise.
Perhaps you plan to walk to work to notice the beauty of nature.
Maybe you'll call upon the three bounce chuckle to bring laughter,
Get some endorphins flowing,
Or it might be as simple and powerful as taking a mindful pause.
Now,
How can you make this new practice stick?
How can it be part of your day?
Next,
I want you to think of something predictable that you do every day,
Like waking up,
Going to bed,
Brushing your teeth,
Take some activity that's already reliably built into your weekday.
And now take your favorite practice and staple it to this routine activity.
I find waking and bedtime are ideal times for a stress release strategy,
But breaks within the working day are also really key moments to bring your body back to ease.
Let's take parking as an example and adding breathing.
What I mean by stapling is that now after you've parked,
You turn off the key and that is the trigger to remind you to do a few minutes of breathing.
Maybe it's four,
Four,
Eight breathing or whatever activity you've chosen to first set this habit,
Put it into your calendar at the right time of day,
Just to remind yourself of it each day.
See how this works for you.
Stapling your new tip to a fixed daily routine allows you to embed stress release into your day.
And after a week or two,
It can become second nature.
So remember the post-it and the staple and above all,
Be kind and patient as you keep trying.
That's why we call these practices.
We try them over and over.
Thank you for joining us for being together,
Wishing you much love and kindness.
