Heart-Based Practices

Day 13: Relieving Stress SBNRR (Stop, Breathe, Notice, Reflect, Respond)  Q.) What were the signals that a trigger response or stress was present? When stress happens, I tend to avoid. I would not sit well. I will get something to eat and/or walk away from the stress zone. My heart rate rise. I also notice I would not breathe when stress present. Q.) What parts of SBNRR were easy for you?  Difficult?   What's easy is Stop. I can stop anytime and walk away. The difficult part is Respond. I might walk away and never come back to finish the tasks.  Q.) How did practicing SBNRR impact the outcome of the situation? It impacts in a way of reducing anxiety. Helps me sleep better at night. When practice Notice especially, I know I am easily affected by what's happening around me. I change my environment instead. It helps! A lot!

I can noticed my awareness of thoughts and feelings when I stop myself and calm down after meditation. I think is a good thing for my to cut off or take a break for myself. I got the awareness on my emotion and self resistance when I having a deep talk with people. 

I felt more alive when I got rid of the toxic people in my environment. It’s like waking up after a long sleep, in which my nerves were methodically draining out of me.

When was the last time you gave yourself permission to step back from the activity of daily life? As mentioned in another thread, I recently took a two-week vacation, five days of which was a formal retreat. It was deeply restorative and offered me new insights and clarity about my life. I would love to hear about any transformative retreats you have been on. This can include at-home retreats, mindful breaks in nature, or any other time that you intentionally 'stepped away'.  Or, let me know if you are planning a retreat. If so, what type of retreat will it be?

As some of you know, I took time off recently for a personal retreat. I hadn't mentioned that this was for a dark retreat - 6 nights/5 days in complete darkness. Has anyone else done this type of practice or have you heard of it? I wanted to share a bit about my experience, but as I wouldn't know where to start if I were to make it concise, I am going to share a blog post I wrote about it just the other day: https://www.gillianflorence.com/blog/five-days-in-darkness