What do you do to ‘become yourself again’ after being upset?
Frustration, anger, anxiety, fear can all encourage your body to sense there is a threat — elevating our blood pressure, heart rate and other signs of the ‘stress response’ that helps us deal with dangerous environment. But sometimes the stress response is counter-productive to ‘keeping a cool head’, ‘having a productive conversation’ or just ‘staying connected’ to our partner.
The ability to ‘self-soothe’ is crucial under those circumstances. There are many ways to self-soothe, each one as individual as we are.
Here are some suggestions that have been sent in so far:
Personal experiences: (write in your response)
“I go to the movies on my own. It doesn’t work with TV. There is something about going to a movie, in the dark with strangers that makes me get out of my “spinning” state.” ~ Karen, LA
“Sprinting in circles around the lawn. I didn’t want to lose my cool once so I tried it. I just ran and ran, then I started to laugh at myself. It worked to break my frustration cycle.” ~ Beatrice, Vancouver, BC
“Duh. Sometimes I feel so silly that I don’t remember where I am in my cycle. Just realizing I’m not crazy, just pms-ing, helps me to calm down.” ~ Syndey, Blaine, WA
On TV/Movies:
“United States of Tara” Season 1 Episode 6. Tara doesn’t want to ‘transition’ because of stress so instead of taking a drug to calm down her husband takes her out to the back yard to run around. “