Sitting with My Stress
Every day I’m amazed with how much baby girl grows. Rapidly evolving and changing my body too, until one day I’ll bring her into this world. When that moment comes I will have a human soul to care for in order to guide her to reach her full potential. Nothing will be more important than her life. Even writing this all out and I’m stressed the F out.
Philosophie Goddess, Marissa Cohen shares her stress journey and how she show up completely to all the anxiety + stress. Once you’re able to sit with your stress, meditate on what is keeping you this way, fully embrace it and acknowledge it, then you can overcome it and go after the ultimate, BALANCED you.
I woke up this morning with an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. My mind felt wired and my head like it was somewhere in space. My physical body felt tight and uncomfortable. My first thought at 5:45 a.m. was to hop out of bed, lace up my sneakers, and head to a spin class. I have always loved exercise as a way to manage my stress. Particularly, cardio like spinning and running has helped my mind to “turn off.” To detach. To forget. In many ways, this has been positive for me. When my anxious thoughts aren’t serving me, it can be great to go to a place that allows me to forget them. But as I went to get out of bed, I realized that I have been having this anxious feeling too often. Has my coping mechanism been helping me to manage my stress, or has it been allowing me to avoid it?
We all live full, busy lives. I know I can’t speak for myself as a college student who is constantly hustling between classes, extracurriculars, work, social events, workouts and all the other things that my Google Calendar will prompt me to do. For many of us, it can feel like we’re already in that spin room transitioning between sprints, jumps, and endurance tracks all day. So, what do we do to cope? We turn to whatever it is that allows us to zone out. For some of us, that’s mindless eating or drinking (lack of nourishment), scrolling through Instagram, binging on television, substance abuse, or it can be exercise. I’ve come to see that the actual activity that we use to escape is not inherently good or bad. Exercise isn’t always a positive and a glass of wine isn’t always a negative. Yes, when used to the extreme then problems start to appear. When their use comes from the same intention, we are seeking the same result.
So, as I went to trade my pajama bottoms for my workout tights, I forced myself to lay back down. I turned on a five-minute meditation. I took out my journal. I challenged myself to sit with my stress in an effort to try to identify and heal the root cause, instead of suppressing it with spin. I will always turn to exercise as a way to handle how I’m feeling, but now I aim to do so from a place of consciousness. If I know that I am trying to escape, then it can be amazing… sometimes. Other times, I need to do the hard work and be in my own discomfort, so that I can begin to feel more grounded in my day to day. So that I can live a life that I don’t have to run from so often.
In times of chaos and high stress take a breath, light some palo santo and sit with yourself. Focus on your breath and let everything come into you. I guarantee, you’ll find the ground again.
How do you control your stress + anxiety? What tools do you use? Share with me on Facebook using #MyPhilosophie.
1 comment
I’m probably not the only man who has found myself in similar situations to what was written. I’ve recently made the effort to stop using running as an escape, and it is now testing whether it was something I actually liked doing.