well, more than just the pleasant stretch it should be. I swore I’d strangle the instructor the next time he called downward facing dog “a resting pose”. On more and more occasions, my “breathing and lengthening” was in danger of becoming holding (in of frustration) and shortening (of temper). Then there was the cash I was burning on all of this. Horrible tasting brown liquid doesn’t come cheap! Especially when half the medical profession would
notice a difference. And while I still told myself every morning that “I am a calm, relaxed person”, I made much more of an effort to feel those words, rather than just say them, and tie them into the other things I was doing to manage stress. So far, it’s working. I think the main realisation I’ve had is that rather than throw a whole bunch of techniques at stress, stress management comes down to a couple of things. Firstly, that our thoughts are just thoughts, not reality. And that to have more control over our lives, we need to be able to control our thoughts
“I’d always been pretty disciplined with physical fitness, but from now on, the focus had to be on mental fitness. “ question if it’s more effective than
better. Although in saying that, it’s pretty easy to sound like a self-
the brown dirt and leaf soup my
development guru, but a lot harder to put into practice.
kids used to mix up with a stick in an ice-cream bucket in the garden. How had I reached this stage? The things that were supposed to help me manage stress were actually having the opposite effect. My stress management strategy was stressing me out! So, for the next couple of weeks, I decided to take things down a
I’m still keeping the meditation going, but doing mainly shorter ones, or a longer one when I feel like I really need some help, like after a Dockers game. Plus, I moved on from The Annoying Ing Meditation Guide. The app I use now has a guide with an Australian accent, who I’m getting on with much better. If only he didn’t pronounce the word you as ya,
notch. I only went to yoga once a week. I didn’t eat brown dirt and
my mind would be able to focus completely on letting my thoughts
leaf soup, but cut down on the naturopathic remedies to see if I could
move on, just like leaves on a gently flowing stream.
www.offspringmagazine.com.au
perth | winter 2016 | Offspring
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