Re-focus, re-wire, re-born

When we live our lives through worry and anxiety, usually the focus is towards all the things that seem to make our life more complicated, dangerous or difficult. While focusing on all of that it is very hard to fully observe all the little things that can create a change in the way we are perceiving our existence.There are little things around us that can make us smile, feel happy, and in that way change our perspective of things. 

The other morning while walking I was thinking about all the things I had to do that day, plus all the planning necessary for an upcoming trip. I was feeling hot and uncomfortable, complaining in my mind about the weather. All of these and many more thoughts raising in my mind were creating a sense of stress and anxiety in my body. My heart was racing and my breathing was shallow.

Suddenly I turn my head and saw this tiny little flower and that was enough to re-focus my thoughts and realize that there are blessings everywhere. By doing this switch in my mind, I helped re-wire my brain; this is something I have been doing for awhile. It is part of the mindful way of walking that I talked about in a previous post. 

I started to pay closer attention to my surroundings noticing more beautiful flowers, a bird, other dogs and the people passing by; all of these distracted my mind from my worries and engaged all my senses in the present moment, giving me a sense of calmness and peace.

Switching the way I was perceiving my environment created a complete change in the way I was thinking and feeling. The anxious feeling disappeared and I was able to put things back in perspective and realize that by worrying about all the things I had to do I was only wasting the opportunity of enjoying the moment, be mindful and re-center myself. 

Our thoughts can create situations that our bodies do not have capacity to differentiate between real and not real. When our minds are running from one thing to another, our bodies believe we are in real danger and secrete all the necessary hormones and neuro transmitters to help us react quickly to go back into safety. 

The problem arises when there is not a real threat; we are not in real danger, or need to run and escape to save our lives. These hormones that have already been thrown into our system make us feel like uneasy, increase our heart rate and breathing opening the door wide open for anxiety and panic to invade our body. 

Being able to control our minds and catch this unhealthy patterns of thinking before our body reacts to them is a powerful way of managing anxiety; requires practice and patience, but when incorporated in our daily living it can improve our general health. Avoiding the release of these fight or fly response chemical in our body whenever they are not needed will lower stress, improve our cardiovascular and emotional health. 

It is all in the way we manage our mental processes and how aware we are about them. Practice re-focusing, to be able to re-wire and with a new mental path re-born.

The original road.