The Evening Download Technique
Here is a quick tip for clearing the stress from the day that can also inhibit emotionally numbing habits like drinking or eating too much at night.
1) Set aside a few minutes after you get home before dinner. If you can’t do it then, do it after. It will help with your digestion.
2) Scan your breath. Are you breathing from your chest or your gut? When we breathe from our gut, we get more oxygen and thus are able to adapt to stress more easily. When we breathe from our chest, shallow breathing tends to increase anxiety. Making this small adjustment can center you within five minutes.
3) Now, once you have centered yourself, go back through the day and notice what your emotional state was at each juncture up to the present. How did you feel just after waking? While getting dressed? As you moved about your day? Set an intention for letting go of any conflicts you are still holding in your body right now as you exhale.
4) Once you have scanned the day and released the stress with your breath, imagine a beautiful ball of golden light, three feet above your head. Emanating from that light is a ray of light gently entering into the top of your head slowly moving down throughout your whole body filling you with radiant, unconditional love.
If you dont have time to do this before your evening begins, do it before falling asleep. Even if you fall asleep during the exercise, your sleep will be much more peaceful from having released the day.
This is just one of the many techniques you will learn in my “Thriving Through Chaos” group this summer. Read on for more details. I also have useful new tips in my blog. ( link to the left)
In closing, contemplate this quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross:
“People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”
Here is a quick tip for clearing the stress from the day that can also inhibit emotionally numbing habits like drinking or eating too much at night.
1) Set aside a few minutes after you get home before dinner. If you can’t do it then, do it after. It will help with your digestion.
2) Scan your breath. Are you breathing from your chest or your gut? When we breathe from our gut, we get more oxygen and thus are able to adapt to stress more easily. When we breathe from our chest, shallow breathing tends to increase anxiety. Making this small adjustment can center you within five minutes.
3) Now, once you have centered yourself, go back through the day and notice what your emotional state was at each juncture up to the present. How did you feel just after waking? While getting dressed? As you moved about your day? Set an intention for letting go of any conflicts you are still holding in your body right now as you exhale.
4) Once you have scanned the day and released the stress with your breath, imagine a beautiful ball of golden light, three feet above your head. Emanating from that light is a ray of light gently entering into the top of your head slowly moving down throughout your whole body filling you with radiant, unconditional love.
If you dont have time to do this before your evening begins, do it before falling asleep. Even if you fall asleep during the exercise, your sleep will be much more peaceful from having released the day.
In closing, contemplate this quote from Elizabeth Kubler-Ross:
“People are like stained-glass windows.
They sparkle and shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets in,
their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within.”