Stuck in your head? My favorite technique for clearing.

Is there a lot going on in your head right now?

Ah, yes.  The tasks, ideas, activities, decisions, and things that are happening around me sometimes bounce around in my head and get stuck there.   It keeps me from being focused and thinking clearly.  This makes me feel “off” and I can’t be my best self.   I found this to be a theme with many people I am talking with this week.

We all operate in “doing” and “being”.   We tend to be more in the “doing” – getting things done, or spending more time mindlessly on activities that don’t always serve us.  The flip side is the “being” place.  Stillness.  Calm.  Paying attention to what is deeply inside us.  Both are important but starting with the “being” first helps us with the “doing”.

I use a lot of basket analogies and visualizations while working with clients that are helpful.  This is one of my favorites to help calm the mind and determine a next step.

The steps to it are this:

Take deep breaths to relax.  Close your eyes if it is comfortable to you.

Notice your body in your chair.  As you continue to breathe, notice your feet and any tension you hold and release it.  Move up through your body taking time for this in each area.

Next picture all the things that are troubling you that are on your mind and visualize putting them in a basket in your head.  Collect them one by one.

Slowly move this basket down your body into your center, or the knowing part of you.  Visualize this place as a loving, knowing, warm light. 

As the basket is there, what loving things do you hear about what is in your basket or about yourself?

Continue to breathe and feel and hear all of these things.

When you are ready, open your eyes and notice how you feel.  Write down what you heard and anything from the experience you would like to remember.

This is just one technique that is very helpful to listen to your knowing or center and to bring you out of your head.  Practicing and regularly utilizing techniques such as this one, will help you to build a different muscle – your “being”.  This is a way of navigating the world around us, our next steps and, more importantly, finding peace and meaning.