How to ‘Take a Healthy Break’ to Reduce Anxiety

How to ‘Take a Healthy Break’ to Reduce Anxiety

A break’s original purpose was to create a sense of spaciousness and cultivate calm to rebalance the mind, body & soul. In this sense it was a way of self-soothing that reduces anxiety.

The default for ‘taking a break’ these days often means grabbing a cup of coffee or scrolling social media, which is anything but soothing and studies how can actually increase feelings of anxiousness.

What is self-soothing? It is any behaviour we use to regulate our emotional state by ourselves.

There are infinite ways to self-sooth, but not all are created equal. There is a great difference between ones that are beneficial to us and those that are self-sabotaging. They are the ones that, while they temporarily change our emotional state, they create a worse state in the future. The most dramatic example of these being toxin withdrawal – like nicotine, sugar and yes….even that delicious Rose wine.

Here are some tips on how to restore true self-care to your breaks and cultivate the art of healthy self-soothing

The first thing to become aware of is WHY you need to take a break.

How are you Feeling?

1) Tired / Physically Drained

2) Hungry (really physically hungry…not just mentally)

3)Mentally overwhelmed / Brain Fried

4)Emotionally Agitated / Irritable

Often we are more than just one of these things, but when you are aware of the why you can choose a type of break that will really be a remedy and provide the relief you are looking for.

Here are our top ways to take a healthy break that will have you feeling refreshed and rebalanced in 15 minutes

  • Take a break from using media technology – not even to listen to that amazing podcast. Give your mind a rest. Look out a window, cuddle your pet, find a spot to sit in a patch of sunlight and breathe deep.
  • Become aware of where you and what you are sensing. then repeating this to yourself. For example, ‘I am sitting on a bench. I feel the wood under my legs. I feel the sun on my face. I hear a dog barking’. This is a very simple, yet powerful, way to bring us into the present moment. It is a wonderful antidote for anxiety caused by thinking on future fears or running past resentments and arguments over endlessly in the mind.
  • Make a cup of something warm and gentle on the stomach with little or no caffeine – Miso soup, herbal or green tea, a room temperature natural vegetable, fruit juice, coconut water. Sit and drink it mindfully. If you need more to eat then you will be making that choice from a more comfortable place of not being empty and desperate.
  • Rub your fave essential oil on your wrists and behind your ears and breathe deeply
  • Take a quick shower….and have a try having the water be cold enough to get your heart pumping!
  • Put your feet up up against a wall or the back of your couch, close your eyes and breathe. When you elevate your feet you turn on your parasympathetic nervous system that is naturally calming to your body and mind. This yoga practice is called Viparita Karani in Sanskrit. 
  • Take a pause and check that you are not doing or fixing things for other people that they can do for themselves. Some of us have a hard time delegating, so just start with stopping trying to fix everything for everyone around you. You will find it frees up a lot of time …and especially head space.

Giving yourself a healthy break is the ultimate in self-love. You deserve to take care of yourself. You are precious Goddess.

Goddess Retreats has been creating transformative wellness experiences for the body, mind, and spirit for women for 20 years

 

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