pause. breathe. check in. finding our centre again
#veryhumanregulation #selfregulation #selfregulationskills
we have titled this: TOSSING AND TURNING Photographs taken with iphone
So we woke in the middle of the night and all the feels were happening. Don‘t you hate that? How does that play out for you? For us it quickly escalates to all sorts of nasty places like self sabotage and wanting to self harm and fantasising abandonment and rejection and hating and we feel so alone and desperate and then it all just keeps on spiralling from there until, if we’re lucky, we fall asleep out of exhaustion. But it can go on for hours.
So last night we did things differently. Last night, instead of following our usual pattern, we decided to listen to our own selves and do what we wrote about in this blog. Self regulation! Woot woot.
It was a warm night and our curtain was open a little so that the cool air could flow in. We got our phone and began to take pics of the open window in the night. We focused on the light and what we could see and how we could capture it. Then we moved our body and moved into different positions and took new shots - playing with angle and focus and framing and actually having a lot of fun. And we calmed right down and got back to regulated and guess what? We curled up and went back to sleep! Yep! How amazing is that?
Much better way of spending a potentially horrible night awake. Try it next time you find yourself lying and ruminating in the darkness. Open the curtains, put in a dim light, use the flashlight on your phone. Play with the flash settings, use video - whatever you can think of! keep breathing and really focus. If you’re ever up for it, we’d be super keen to hear how you went.
Sweet slumber is our wish for you and us tonight.
Photos by Marie-Claude
writing by Max
So here we are sharing our daily practice of PAUSE. BREATHE. CHECK IN. Clearing the clutter and finding me, myself and I in the present moment. And we invite you to follow along and let's keep each other on track? Or try to at least, some days are still pretty bumpy. Sigh
Join onto the main page of Ground Control to Major Whoa explore how to join this journey: LINK HERE
Try Daily Self Regulation Art: How We Go About It
We go outside (fresh air) and pay attention to nature and details in the world around us (focusing tool). Each day we select one item or snap a photo with our phone and bring it home. We select the medium that most matches our mood or that we feel will be the most regulating in that moment and we set to work drawing (calming our nervous system and bringing ourselves back on line through hyper focusing)
We set an alarm for 20 minutes (our containment) but you figure out what works best for you. Sometimes a quick 5 will do; other times it feels like we need half a day, doesn't it? We do often repeat this exercise several times through the day when it's a real doozy of a day. Smile