wellness Archives - Page 2 of 2

Relief From Anxiety

By Cheryl Wilson-Stewart | January 22, 2020 | Comments 9 comments

ANXIETY. It makes your head feel like it’s sandwiched in a vice grip. You mind overwhelmed with thoughts of fear, doubt and worry.

Did you know that from the time a girl reaches puberty until the age of 50 she is twice as likely to suffer from anxiety than a man?

WHY WOMEN ARE MORE AFFECTED THAN MEN

Differences in brain chemistry may account for part of these differences. The brain system involved in the fight-or-flight response is activated more readily in women and stays activated longer than men, partly as a result of the action of estrogen and progesterone.

The neurotransmitter serotonin may also play a role in the responsiveness to stress and anxiety. Some evidence suggests that the female brain does not process serotonin as quickly as the male brain. Unfair as it may be, it’s a simple fact, women suffer from anxiety much more often than men.

I KNOW THE PAIN I’VE BEEN THERE

I suffered from anxiety for most of my life. Mine would manifest as a loop that went around and around and keep me trapped until I could break it. I was basically held hostage by my own negative thoughts. My family and close friends described me as an intense, tightly wound, obsessive person who sometimes disappeared down a rabbit hole. Not who I wanted to be. Other people didn’t know the struggle I was engaged in because I had cultivated a glossy, upbeat façade that fooled everyone. Maintaining that was a struggle in itself.

Always looking…

I was always looking for relief and ways to break the loop. I tried so many things, exercise (helped) mediation (couldn’t concentrate), affirmations (no effect), chanting (not for me), journaling (too much writing), vitamin and herbal therapy (didn’t work).

One of the things I started to do was to write down quotes that I found meaningful on an index card and tack them on my bulletin board. One day instead of writing the quote I wrote the word from the quote that had the most meaning for me … the word was joy. I wrote JOY and drew a big heart around it and then I dug out pencil crayons, glitter and sparkles and I started to play. I felt like I was channeling my inner 6-year old. I remember tacking my it up on my bulletin board and smiling. The interesting thing was as the day went on, I kept flashing on my card. I would be reminded of the word JOY and I’d be filled with those good feelings all over again.

A few days later I did it again and tried another word. I had the same experience I was reminded of my word as I went through the day and I felt the feelings.

I started doing more of these.

I choose words that represented who I wanted to be or what I thought I needed that day. I always had the same experience. The word which was my intention for the day became top of mind and the loudest voice in my head as I went through the day. Whether I was in line at the grocery store, driving or at the bank I would be reminded of my intention. I would see word. I would feel the word. The word was reflected in my experiences. I felt good.

I called these heart doodles.

I became a disciplined heart doodler choosing an intentional word and drawing and coloring it every morning. I refined it further and started titling each page Today I CHOOSE to…TODAY made it immediate and kept me present not focused on what happened yesterday or what might be coming up tomorrow. CHOOSE reminded me that I choosing to be in charge of my life and how I felt.

What I started to notice was that the loop of anxiety that had been my permanent side kick wasn’t there and in its place were my intentional words and feelings that I was choosing every morning.

After all the things I’d tried this ‘heart doodle’ strategy worked.

That was 6 years ago.

Heart doodles become OH MY WORD as I shared it in the workshops for women I facilitated through my Red Shoe Zone blog.

Benefits of OH MY WORD:

Lowers stress and eases anxiety
Sets the tone for the day when done first thing in the morning
Retrains your brain to think in new ways
Makes your positive intentional thoughts the loudest voices in your head
Allows you to choose who you will be, how you will express yourself and how you will live- you are in control
Allows you to interrupt negative habitual thoughts and replace them with positive ones

Other ways to reduce anxiety that helped me:

Cut down on caffeine
Get regular exercise
Take deep belly breaths
Eat well balanced healthy meals

Purchase OH MY WORD on Amazon.com

Purchase OH MY WORD on Amazon.ca

Purchase OH MY WORD at Chapters/Indigo

How to Stop Negative Thoughts From Taking Over

By Cheryl Wilson-Stewart | December 11, 2019 | Comments 21 comments

Sometimes it feels like negative thoughts have taken over our brains. They move in and refuse to budge reminding us of worst-case scenarios and incessantly asking what if? They tell us why we can’t do something and why none of our ideas will work.

Did you know we each think between 60,000-80,000 thoughts per day and the majority of these are habitual and the voices of fear, doubt, worry and anxiety? We infuse these thoughts with so much emotional energy, they become the biggest, loudest most powerful thoughts in our head.

Out with the old in with the new

We need a way to replace the negative, nagging thoughts with those representing the highest intentions of who we are and want to be. It’s not that we don’t have positive thoughts, we do. It’s just that they’re busy navigating the 1,000-lane thought expressway, battling thousands of blaring thought streams while attempting to generate energy and gain momentum.

It’s a tough go for these positive intentional thoughts.

You can see how the highest expression of who we are, what we want and how we want to live our lives might get lost in the chaos.

There’s good news!

The good news is that we, as the creator of our lives, can crank up the volume by becoming clear on what we want, choosing an intention and moving it from thought to action every morning.

Thoughts need activation

To activate, our intentions need fuel to move from head into heart. This fuel supply is provided by the emotions and allows for the integration of body and mind where the real magic happens.

It’s like this. When we understand something intellectually (left side of the brain) and then make it ‘experiential’ by moving it into our emotions (right side of the brain) we are providing the life-giving fuel our intentions need to be turned on. We can then think and feel the thought.

When we experience the thought, we can change.

The rewired brain

This experiential process actually rewires the brain, causing the neurons to create new patterns and producing a chemical that the body remembers as we move through the day.

This is also a form of what scientists call metacognition – which means it’s a way of tricking the brain into achieving our greatest good. We’ve successfully interrupted and distracted the negative disempowering thoughts with super charged intentional thoughts allowing them to break through the congestion and get to work.

OH, MY WORD gets the job done

When you do the simple five-minute OH MY WORD morning ritual it interrupts the negative thought patterns and alters the brain, causing the neurons to start firing in new ways. The mind remembers your intention and is on the lookout for ways to manifest and make it concrete.

You Think it. Feel it. Live it.

You are actively creating who you want to be by using just a word.

So, I ask you.

Who do you want to be? How do you want to express yourself?

Find a word that represents your deepest intention.

Draw the word.

Colour it.

Through the drawing and colouring process you’ve moved the thought from intellect (left side of the brain) to experiential (right side of the brain).

A new neural pathway has been created.

The rewiring process has begun.

Negative thought disabled.

Replaced by highest intention positive thought that you chose.

Bingo!

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Tips For Making Your OH, MY WORD Practice (even more) Awesome!

By Cheryl Wilson-Stewart | December 2, 2019 | Comments 11 comments

OH, MY WORD journaling has been described as a 5-minute active mediation.

Get cozy in a comfy chair, sip your morning coffee or tea, choose an intentional word that describes who you want to be, draw and colour.

In that 5 minutes you’ve interrupted an old, negative, habitual thought and replaced it with a positive new one, created a new neural pathway and begun to rewire your brain.

How’s that for a good use of your time??

OH, MY WORD journaling makes you feel great. There are a few things you can do to intensify your practice and make it even more effective.

6 ways to make OH, MY WORD (even more) awesome.

1. FIND YOUR BEST TIME

My favourite time to do OH, MY WORD is first thing in the morning because it sets the tone for the entire day. But it can be successfully adapted for families (in the evening) and to fit work schedules.

2. USE GOOD QUALITY PENCIL CRAYONS

Use good quality pencil crayons…usually described as ‘artist quality’. These are just more fun to work with! They are smooth and velvety on the paper, they blend well and the colours are particularly vibrant and beautiful. Claire Moore (illustrator of OH, MY WORD) has offered her recommendations. Check them out here.

3. MAKE YOUR INTENTIONAL WORD ACTIVE

When you complete the sentence Today I choose to….. make sure the word (or phrase) you choose is active. Verbs like love, forgive, trust, explore, experiment, create, see, listen are great examples. If you choose a word that isn’t a verb you can make it active by adding ‘be’ (ie be grateful, be peaceful, be vulnerable, be generous, be free, be present etc). Short phrases work very well too when made active like…. go for it, take a risk, speak my truth, stand up. Making the word active catapults you into that state of ‘being’ and super charges the intention and your day.

4. TAKE 3 DEEP BREATHS AND THINK OF YOUR WORD

Throughout the day when you’re stuck in traffic, in line at the grocery store, waiting at the doctor or dentist’s office take 3 deep breaths and think of your word. What I do it is see my word on the page. I take a deep belly breath inhaling through the nose to count of 4 holding it at the top and exhaling to a count of 6 (I exhale through my nose you can exhale through your mouth if you prefer) holding at the bottom and repeat. This has the power to make me super chill in just a couple minutes. Plus, I’ve breathed all that energy and power into my word. Very satisfying. Very uplifting. Very powerful.

5. FEEL FREE TO USE SAME WORD OVER AND OVER

This is the most commonly asked question by OH, MY WORD journalers . Can I repeat a word? Yes…yes…and YES! You can repeat a word as many times as you like for as long as you like. What you do have to do is draw it on a fresh page every day. I’ve repeated certain words over and over and over. The only person that knows when its time to move on is You.

6. WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH – KEEP GOING

We all hit patches when the going gets tough. We’re overwhelmingly busy, dealing with a setback, in crisis mode whatever it is the we feel like we’re struggling in the trenches. Don’t stop OH, MY WORD journaling! Have you ever noticed that when things get challenging in our lives we often stop doing all the things that are good for us. We say things like, “It’s just not the ‘right’ time to…. (go to the gym, meditate, journal, get out in nature, eat healthy food etc….)“. Let me tell you as one whose been there it’s the ‘right-est’ time EVER. Do. Not. Stop. Get something on the page even if its…Today I choose to…breathe. This can be particularly good since when we’re in the trenches we often hold our breath and forget to breathe! I promise it will help.

THE BONUS …..

Colour outside the lines.

Channel your 6-year-old self as you draw your word.

BANISH Anxiety. Find JOY. 5 MINUTES A DAY. ONE WORD.

BUY OH, MY WORD at Chapters/Indigo in Canada

BUY OH, MY WORD at Amazon for US and International