“Tell the negative committee that meets in your head to sit down and shut up.”
– Unknown

I’m ready. Ready to take active steps to rid myself of the feelings of isolation and unworthiness. It’s quite a task to undertake, but I’m ready.

As I begin to make changes to my habits of checking in on Facebook or rushing to check in on today’s horrible news about the state of our world, I insert a better habit- I choose to breathe mindfully. The simple act of witnessing one’s own stead inhales and exhales give the brain something to focus on.

You see, we live in a time where the fight or flight portion of our brain known as the amygdala, is in hyper-overdrive. Back when we were cavemen, this part of the brain kept us alive. It is what helped us perceive a  bear as danger and kicked in the necessary fight or flight mechanism. While man’s technologies have updated over the years, this part of the brain has not. We now spend so much of our energy managing tasks, juggling items on our never-ending to-do lists, meeting demands placed on us by others and ourselves. Top that off with our instant access to news and information from around the world, and we are in a constant state of panic.

I simply can’t continue to live like this. When I make choices to shut down my children’s playing because the sensory overload I experience while in the presence of their laughing and screeching makes me lose control of my emotional state, I’m not of healthy mind. I can’t stifle my children’s creativity because I’ve chosen to spend my energy on nonsense that zaps me of mine and leaves me in a constant state of fight or flight. This is no way to live.

Today, I make a conscious choice to instead stifle the negative committee in my own head by choosing to place my attention on my breath.

Breathing in freedom. Breathing out the voices.

What practices in mindfulness help you to calm your inner voices?

Kerstin