Reducing vulnerability isn’t rocket science but does take work!
Let’s look at how we can get started!
If we are feeling sick hungry tired if we are under the influence if we are inactive and sedentary and we aren’t doing something that gives us a sense of accomplishment every day we are considerably more likely to be in a vulnerable position to negative emotions.
We will experience the negative way more than the positive AND we will be less able to handle situations or interact with our wise, intuitive mind.
The following skills are ones that we can use to keep ourselves less vulnerable to having negative emotions, and less likely to get into a state of Emotion Mind, where emotions control our thoughts and actions.
Skills that affect our physical and mental well being
1. Treat Physical Illness
- Do you have a physical illness that needs to be tended to?
- Do you have medications or treatments prescribed for you and are you taking them or doing them as prescribed?
- Do you have things keeping you from treating your physical illness?
- What would it take for you to take care of your physical needs? o
2. Balancing Eating
- How well do I eat?
- Do I eat too little? Or too much?
- What kinds of food do I eat?
- What foods make me feel good? Or feel calm? Or Energized? Or what foods make me feel bad?
- Do I rely on foods for emotional purposes?
- How do sugar and caffeine make me feel?
- The key here is to eat foods that are healthy and make you feel good
3. Avoid Mood-Altering Substances
- Do you rely on that “bottle of wine” (insert your go-to) to de-stress at the end of the day?
- Do I “deserve” a binder at the end of the week?
- Does it make my trouble disappear?
- Or does my go-to substance increase my distress? Especially the next day…
- The critical piece here will be to remove the emotional purpose for any and all mood-altering substances. If you want a glass of wine with a steak because it pairs well, great, but that is completely different than having a glass of wine to change your emotional state.
4. Balance Sleep
- Do your mental reels and thought loops spin the moment your head hits the pillow?
- Are you continuously having rehearsals, going over the conversations you haven’t had yet designing ALL the versions that may unfold?
- How about those dreaded “I can’t forget to” “I can’t believe I forgot to” “I have to” “I should have”… are they running amuck?
- Here you will need an effective night hygiene process. One that allows you to empty the thoughts in your head and know you have everything you need right where you need it to be in the morning. (I have a great system I am happy to share here TLR Core Daily Practices)
5. Get Exercise (now I am not saying run out, join a gym, and begin obsessing in this area)
- What do you do each day to connect with your environment?
- How do you generate momentum or motivation?
- What does your internal dialogue sound like when looking at yourself in the mirror?
- Do you have an all-in or all-out personality?
- If you are ready to make some changes that are lifelong manageable and maintainable, if you are ready to learn how you can be productively active in your life for you then I suggest starting with learning ALL about a truly balanced lifestyle. You can use The Balance Effect as my gift to you!