Somatic
Business Coaching in Action
Via
email, Lisa Turns Overwhelm into Energy and Insight
The following exchange is excerpted from emails to and from
Lisa over a period of several days between her regular coaching sessions.
LISA: How can I deal better with overwhelming situations?
SUZANNE: Let's try a few questions:
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When
you're feeling overwhelmed, do you also have a sense of either anxiety or
contraction in your body?
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If
so, where?
·
If
you can identify these places, try breathing deeply. Bring your awareness
to your breath and connect to the ground through your legs and feet. As you
breathe out, let the anxiety or contraction soften with your outbreath.
Continue doing this until you feel more relaxed and expanded.
Practice this exercise daily, or more often as needed,
and let me know what happens.
LISA: The first place I feel tension/anxiety when I'm overwhelmed is in the
crown area, the top and back of my head. Whenever I feel this head tension,
I now examine my whole body for other tension. I notice it next in my face,
especially around my eyes. Then, I also notice it in my stomach.
I don't recognize the feeling as contraction but rather as tension and
anxiety. Perhaps what I call tension and contraction are the same?
When I breathe deeply and connect through my legs and feet, I can relax my
stomach and face fairly readily. It takes a very long time (8+ minutes) to
breathe relaxation into and out of the gray matter. When the tension in my
head finally begins to leave, it lingers at both of my temples before
finally relaxing. At first, the relaxation feels too fragile to keep the
overwhelm at bay.
With practice, and concentration, however, I am able to hold the
relaxation. Then, I feel more open. I am very calm. I can think clearly.
SUZANNE: Thanks for your responses. Keep these questions for future
practice, and see what happens over time. Eventually, you will be able to
center and relax more quickly, until you get to a point where your
awareness and breath will be enough to bring about the relaxation.
The founder of aikido once said he gets off center as much as anyone else,
but he returns to center so fast that no one notices that he's been off.
Have fun relaxing!
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