Day 27: a problem that I have

I'm an anxious person. You may or may not realize that about me. Somethings make me more anxious than other things. Sometimes I'm not anxious at all. But when I'm anxious, I'm anxious! And even then, you may not always realize it, but I do. I feel it inside. So I've been working to simply be more aware in life of exactly what's going on around me and what's going on inside of me and what my reaction is to those things.

Two things have helped a great deal: running and yoga. Running is repetitive enough for me to get into a rhythm that helps calm my body and mind. It helps move my brain forward as my legs move forward. Yoga is a practice that trains the body, mind and soul to focus and release at the same time. In yoga poses, the muscles are tense and stretched while the breath is always relaxed, deep and steady, and the neck and face are always relaxed, never tight. You can't do those three things without really focusing your mind.

My Enneagram personality profile is #9, Peacemaker. Every day I get EnneaThought emails, appropriate for my profile. This is an EnneaThought I received recently, appropriate for this blog post:

"Exercise frequently to become more aware of your body and emotions. Regular exercise is a healthy form of self-discipline and will increase your awareness of your self while building your self-confidence." (Understanding the Enneagram, 350)

And these are yoga quotes appropriate for this post:

"The yoga mat is a good place to turn when talk therapy and antidepressants aren't enough." (Amy Weintraub)

"Warrior pose battles inner weakness and wins focus.  You see that there is no war within you.  You're on your own side, and you are your own strength." (Terri Guillemets) Warrior pose is one of my favorites.

"Yoga has a sly, clever way of short-circuiting the mental patterns that cause anxiety."  (Baxter Bell, quoted in "Worry Thwarts," Yoga Journal, March 2006)

"When you do yoga - the deep breathing, the stretching, the movements that release muscle tension, the relaxed focus on being present in your body - you initiate a process that turns the fight-or-flight system off and the relaxation response on.  That has a dramatic effect on the body.  The heartbeat slows, respiration decreases, blood pressure decreases.  The body seizes this chance to turn on the healing mechanisms."  (Richard Faulds)


Another problem I have is procrastinating, but I'll get to that post another time....HA!