Weekly newsletter
I. Prompts for motivation
Can you remember a time you felt calm and still despite the amount of chaos happening around you? Do you strive to add more moments of peace and tranquility throughout your week?
Is there someone in your life who seemingly maintains a composed state of mind and presence on a regular basis? Are there certain habits or personal choices in their lifestyle that might possibly contribute to their tranquil demeanor?
II. Thoughts for intention
I think many of us would agree that the worst thing you can do in the middle of overwhelm and uncertainty is to freak out to the point that all of your cognitive abilities are compromised. Worrying and rumination only lead you to spiral, causing your emotions to completely take you over, in which you are possessed by the mental disturbance itself. But if we’re willing to work on this, we get closer to getting in touch with the part of us that understands what it means to remain still above it all. In doing so, we have a greater chance of keeping our agency together to figure out what we can control.
While it takes never-ending effort and dedication to build this muscle, cultivating calm as a regular practice is essential for handling multiple aspects of our lives. It empowers us to see past our agitating feelings in whatever we are dealing with so that we’re less easily upset or taken over by the matter at hand. In the long run, this helps us create more space between the stimulus and our response, a life skill that will keep us steady in more ways than one.
III. Ideas for preparation
Everyone has their own way of cultivating calm within their structure and weekly system. This will vary person to person and, ultimately, it’s up to you to decide what works best based on the results and progress you’re noticing over time. It might be helpful to approach this as an experiment and try all sorts of activities before locking in on the one or two that feel meaningful for you. Eventually, as you keep the progress and reflect on how things are going, it gets easier to see which things are worth your time and commitment.
It’s not uncommon to want to resist anything that seems overhyped; it only makes sense when you notice a recurring message in everything you see. But while there are plenty of ideas that are talked about in the wellness space, the reality is that they’re emphasized over and over again for a reason, and the science backs it. As basic as they appear at first, the truth is that it’s the small and simple things that can have a tremendous impact on our well-being than we might realize. Certain hacks actually regulate our nervous system, including mindfulness, grounding techniques, and gratitude journaling, to name a few.
IV. Quotes for inspiration
“Some people live as though they are already dead. There are people moving around us who are consumed by their past, terrified of their future, and stuck in their anger and jealousy. They are not alive; they are just walking corpses.”
― Thich Nhat Hanh, You Are Here: Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment
“‘How you can sit there, calmly eating muffins when we are in this horrible trouble, I can’t make out. You seem to me to be perfectly heartless.’ / ‘Well, I can’t eat muffins in an agitated manner. The butter would probably get on my cuffs. One should always eat muffins quite calmly. It is the only way to eat them.’”
― Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
