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Staying Calm in The Middle of The Storm

Fri, July 29, 2011 No Comments by Gosia

We all have been there. A stressful situation at work, too many people pulling us in different directions, and all we want to do is just to scream: leave me alone! Well, many times we would like to scream, but we choose to behave appropriately and suppress our anger. Whatever we decide to do – express or suppress our frustration, we probably don’t feel good either way.

From my experience in studying body and mind connection, there is another way to react more skillfully in stressful situations. The secret is to become conscious of your body, ground yourself in your body. What happens when we are under stress is that we contract in our upper body and our breath becomes short, we become easy to defeat. We lose our connection to the ground and “space out”. In order to balance it, we need to ground and center ourselves, feel once again the earth below our feet.

How can you ground yourself? Imagine a tree trunk. You want to center yourself, and to stay stable on the ground. Like a strong tree, you want to be able to withstand all the winds and storms it is confronted with. The first step is to stand upright, and breath in and out slowly, becoming aware of your body. Then you turn your attention to your lower body – your hips, legs, feet and you can even imagine that you are becoming a tree trunk, solid, stable, grounded in the Earth. Next, you turn your attention to your upper body, feeling its lightens, and airiness.

You can imagine that your lower body is like a tree trunk, stable and strong, and your upper body like a tree crown, light and airy. You soften into this feeling, allowing the gravitation to pull down your jaw and shoulders. Next,  you become aware of the energy field around your body, inhaling and exhaling long and slowly.

This centering exercise helps you to collect your energy. Through grounding you “gather yourself together” and with this new stability you can react more skillfully to the stressful situation in question. Once you have memorized this exercise you can use it in any stressful situation, whether at work or at home, whenever you want to feel more calm and think clearly.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT

Whenever you feel stressed out, find a quiet spot to do the following grounding exercise. It may take even as little as 30 seconds.

1). Take an upright standing position. Breath in and exhale, long, feeling the breath flowing through you body to the ground

2). Become aware of your hips area, upper legs, calves, feet. Feel how your lower body connects with the ground. (you can imagine a tree trunk)

3). Uplift your upper body, feel like there is a little more air in your chest.

4). Breath in again, long exhale. Become aware of the energy around your body, in front, at the back, left and right, below and above.

Now you are ready to face your initial challenging situation being more grounded, and centered. You will immediately notice that your mind is much more clear and you are able to take sound decisions. There is a new quality now to your presence. Enjoy!

Jump For Success!

Wed, June 15, 2011 No Comments by Gosia

Are there days when you wish you had more clarity, and the constant chatter in your mind would stop? Do you sometimes find yourself caught up in your thinking, worrying, and planning, not able to focus? Would you like to experience more ease, clarity and focus, to make better life and work decisions and become more productive?

Many of us experience the above situations when we feel stuck in our thinking. In fact, we spend the most of the time in “our head” – thinking, planning, worrying, calculating. In doing so, we focus most of our energy in our heads / thinking process. The solution to this problem is to reverse the energy spread, meaning moving the energy from the head and allowing it to spread over our whole body, to spread it evenly, allowing our brain to take a break in order to function more efficiently.

In the last few weeks I experimented a lot with body energy and its influence on my mind and its efficiency & focus. I discovered that when I activate the energy of my body, move the focus from my head to an even distribution over my body, I relieve my mind, so to speak. Doing so I get rewarded – my mind become more relaxed, at ease, and efficient and focused at the same time. Giving my mind a break, I nourish it and help it to function better. At the same time, I honor my body as well.

Let me give you an example. Some time ago I bought myself a sport trampoline. Every now and then when I feel that I am “stuck” in my mind, not able to think creatively, I simply jump on my trampoline. I play dynamic music and jump around like crazy. I truly feel my body and in time I feel like happiness energy is being released from my body. Just notice next time you are at the playground and see children jumping on the trampoline – how happy and energetic they are after spending some time jumping! (I learned this secret trick from my niece and nephew ;-) ). Usually after some time on the trampoline I sit for 10 minutes or so, feeling my body. It is amazing how this jumping quiets the mind. When I sit, I face an incredible calmness. And very often my creativity starts kicking in enormously.

I encourage you to cultivate this practice of activating  your body energy – it is very simple, yet have a powerful impact on your state of mind, focus, creativity and happiness. Ideally you do this exercise in the morning, before going to work and starting your day. This is a great day to prepare you for the coming day, assuring that you will be at your best the whole day long.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

1. Find your favorite way to activate your body energy. Make sure that this is something simple, energetic and can be done almost everywhere. You may choose running, or spinning on your bike/ indoor bike. Or skipping the rope. Or simply dancing to your favorite music. The choices are endless and you need to find something what speaks to you the most.

2. Make your own activation music playlist! Music activates our energy in the fastest way. Make a playlist of your favorite music and keep it handy if you need it for your body energy activation exercise. Sometimes if you don’t have time to do it with some body movement, just listen to this music in your car or on your iPod, it will also help you release energy, especially if you associate this music with the previous exercise.

3. Whenever you need more clarity, self-confidence, practice your energy activation exercise.

Remember, you can make the shift from fogginess / fear / doubts to clarity / focus and joy in a very simple and fast way. It only takes a few jumps! :-)

Say Hello To Your Body!

Mon, June 6, 2011 No Comments by Gosia

“Joy is just being yourself-alive, fully vibrant, vital.A feeling of the subtle music around your body and within your body, a symphony” Osho

I just came back from India, where I spent an amazing time in an Ashram in Pune, near Mumbai (check out that beautiful henna artwork on my hand – I love it!). This was something I always wanted to do and this time I decided not to dream about it, but make it happen.

Time spent in Ashram was full of excitement: meeting great people from around the world, experimenting with different forms of meditations, enjoying yummy Indian food and breathing in the monsoon air. I went to India because I wanted to get more clarity, to silent my busy mind and create space for creativity. Did I get this? Yes, I did, but in an unexpected form.

I have been meditating for many years now, so this was not new for me itself. However, in this particular Ashram everything was focused on body-mind balancing. Most of the meditations incorporated the movement part, like, e.g. dancing, jumping, whirling, screaming, as well as a silent part. The “movement” part helped people to get in touch with their bodies, calm the mind chatter and release the energy. The whole Ashram seemed to dance – dancing was not only a part of many meditations. Also, every day there was one hour open air Dancing Meditation. In the evenings one could dance further at the Plaza Lounge, where a big party took place almost everyday. Big celebration, joy and vitality.

I embraced this celebration totally. I have been dancing, jumping, screaming, laughing, whirling, shaking, without being conscious about if I look stupid or not. Slowly I could notice that I start to feel my body more and more, that I inhabit it finally. I could also hear more clearly to my intuition and nudges. Suddenly my daily mind chatter was not there – but only silence, peacefulness and clarity.

YOUR ASSIGNMENT:

Re-discover your connection to your body. You can do it in many ways: go for a jog, or just play some energetic music and jump around like no one is watching. You will notice the surge of energy and clarity almost instantly. Or you can simply meditate getting in touch with different parts of your body. Befriend your body again, speak to it, listen to it. You will be amazed how this relationship will nourish you.

Me and my business partner Beth also offer workshops on Body Centered Leadership, where we learn how to listen to our bodies and use its wisdom for our life decisions. Check our Body Centered Leadership website for upcoming workshops in Europe.

How To Increase Your Performance At Work Immediately – 2 Easy Steps!

Tue, February 15, 2011 No Comments by Gosia

At one point in my career I realized that I want to be more, to do more, to achieve more. Work makes such an immense part of our lives and we all want to make the best out of it, and not to struggle. Since that time I was fortunate to make my work a very enjoyable and satisfying part of my life. It didn’t happen overnight though, it required a lot of investment and a long self-discovery process.

However, as I look back now there were 2 essential steps I did, which improved my performance at work almost instantly. And you can do it right now as well. And you will be surprised how much these simple changes influence your performance at work. So here we go:

1. De-clutter

I am a big fan of decluttering, as you can read in my article “Clear Your Clutter! 5 Simple Ways To Reduce Your Stress” . I implemented this principle many years ago and I am still a devoted fan of decluttering, and I am amazed by its immediate influence on work performance.

A cluttered environment means a cluttered mind. Its virtually impossible to think creatively and clearly if you work in an cluttered environment. The energy you need to perform, to be creative and efficient gets stuck in the clutter. Taking the following easy steps you can simply release this energy and use it to increase your performance and overall well-being.

Start with your desk. Look at your desk – is it free of stuff ? Or can you see some piles of documents building up the tower, pens, pieces of papers, etc? Take some time to clear your desk – leave only your computer, phone, pen and a small notebook. That is it. OK, a vase with fresh flowers is allowed and I even encourage you to put in on your desk, it increases creativity. Nothing more. Once you do it, you will feel an instant clarity and new energy flow.

Sort Out Your Documents. Do you have any outdated documents in your office? Throw them away. Or move them to the archive. The rest just sort out it and put into structured files. The energy which is released by this simple step is incredible.

Clear Your Hard Disk Drive. As you did it with your documents, do the same with your files saved on your computer. Many of them you just don’t simply need. Either delete them or burn on the CD and store in a drawer.

If you do only these 3 simple things, you will be overwhelmed by the clarity and energy you received.

2. Focus

Once you cleared the space for flow of creative energy, you need to focus this released energy to produce results you want in your work. You need to focus this energy in the direction of your goals.

Eliminate destruction. You did all the work to release the energy, now you make sure to protect it. We often tend to get distracted (I do) by little shiny objects, and this way we may waste this precious energy. Check your email only 2-3 times a day. If there is something important you need to do, you will get to know it anyways. Check your smart phone also only 2-3 times a day.

One Task At The Time. If you work on something, work only on this one thing and until completion. Studies show that we need a lot more of energy to get back to the task again, as if when we would complete it on one chunk.

First Things First. Prioritize using your time for the most important things first. Use the most productive time in the morning to complete the most important tasks for the day.

Isnt that simple? Yes. And powerful? Yes. I guarantee you that when you implement the above steps, you will instantly perform better at work,  and – what is even more important – you will feel really great!

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