Mindfulness for women that are stressed out and want to feel more centered

In a recent workplace study, women were found more likely to quit their jobs than men. The pandemic has been putting more burdens on women. Work and home life balance have been challenging for most, but statistics point out that it has been tough on women.

High levels of stress can affect all aspects of your life. It can make you more reactive, controlling and, as a result, catapult you into fatigue and burnout. To keep up with all the things you have ego do, you try to control yourself and others.

These restrictions do not address your stress. Being more controlling gives you a partial cessation of feeling a sense of safety, but it hides the stress in reality.

Maybe you have sometimes noticed you feel like running away. It’s just too much.

Instead of cranking up control when you don’t have it, consider letting it go. Reduce your stress by realizing the need to keep life in the same way it was before the pandemic. Being more flexible and laid back could help you stay more calm and positive.

Mindfulness to let go of stress and stay centered

Pay attention to your body.

The first of stress is a sensation; a feeling changes or reaction is intense in the body. It feels like tension, a knot, ache, or discomfort. When you notice any sensation when you try to control someone or a situation, you feel it in your body. As soon as you see this sensation, please pay attention to it. Focus on it with your attention until it feels like it loosens up and gets released.

The process of letting in the body can take a few seconds or minutes. The more you do it, the better you will get at it. Observing sensations is a mindfulness skill that will help you let go of your stress more effectively than suppressing or avoiding it.

Notice your mind

Pay attention when stress shows up. What is your mind saying? Your thinking is feeding the pressure, not a situation that happened or is happening. It is essential to let go of the stress created by the mind. The thoughts keep the stress-activated. Your beliefs about how things should be are the ones that feed the stressful thoughts and keep you on high alert, ready to strike. Most of the time, we have these ideals about what is perfect for any situation. When the ideal scenario gets disrupted, critical thoughts arise.

Being critical is a trigger that the mind uses to keep the stress response activated. To stop the stress response, you must notice your inner commentary’s cause and effect on stress and anxiety. This narrative will beat yourself and blame others for sustaining you on the cycle of worry and overwhelming. You created this narrative so you can let it go as well.

Let it be

What if you do nothing? Ask yourself what it would be like if I ignore the inner commentary. As you question yourself, notice your body. Just for a moment, pretend that your ideal scenario about the situation causing your stress is not the truth. Your ideal is not the solution.

If you let it go, notice how it feels. Your mind is creating a problem that is not the end of the world. Even when if it feels like it, 99% of the time is not. The freedom to drop your narrative can give you the ability to let go of stress and relax.

I want to close this episode with some words of wisdom from John Lennon. I think this song could also help you remember and bring your mind to the present moment in times of stress and tribulation.

“And when the broken-hearted people living in the world agree,
There will be an answer; let it be
For though they may be parted, there is still a chance that they will see
There will be an answer; let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
There will be an answer; let it be
Let it be, let it be, let it be, let it be
Whisper words of wisdom, let it be.”