Moving Your Body To Stop Spiralling
I’m noticing that I try so hard to fix problems in my mind with my mind. Trying to mentally dissect every little discomfort or problem, trying to work out every possible solution to end the discomfort and sadness and frustration until there’s nothing left except complete mental and emotional exhaustion. It’s the mental spiralling feeling. Sometimes, solving problems within our thoughts can’t always be solved with more thought. Thinking about something more and more doesn’t always mean you’re going to come to better solutions.
Something I’ve been practicing is listening to my body instead of going deeper into my mind. I’m doing this by just moving my body. Sometimes the best solution is stepping away, sometimes it's taking a walk, sometimes it’s cooking, sometimes it’s doing the dishes, sometimes it’s meditation, sometimes it's dancing, sometimes it's running as fast as you can, and sometimes it's a hug. Using your body in any type of movement lowers your stress response, it gives you time to step away and gain a new perspective, it shifts your mood, it completely stops the spiralling in its tracks. I used to do this less frequently, and then I started reading Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking The Stress Cycle by Amelia & Emily Nagoski and it was able to help me understand why movement is so important everyday to help complete the body’s natural & biological stress cycle. This isn’t a new concept either, yoga is a perfect example of using movement as a way to move out of the mind and into your breath & body.
In the moment it is so hard to remember to move because our minds are made for problem solving, so when something doesn’t feel right… our minds try so hard to find the issue and fix it. But the more I practice listening to my body and going into my body instead of deeper into my mind, the more present I feel, the more at ease I feel, and the faster I’m actually able to solve issues I’m having. It’s not about 𝘯𝘰𝘵 thinking either, it's not about 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘨 your thinking… it’s just changing your activity from thinking, to doing something physical. When I was little, my mum used to always tell me, “change a mood, not a mind.”