Sandi's handy guide to mindfully surviving a crisis

I have been researching decision making. Not surprisingly research consistently shows that stress negatively affects decision making. I have experienced this right and left over the last couple of weeks, which inspires Sandi’s handy guide to mindfully surviving a crisis.

1. Know where you are – Awareness! Knowing where (and how) you are is critical. Are you stressed, tired, angry, terrified... Recognize emotional states that will color your decision making and ability to act and mitigate them. I recognized that I was in emotional turbulence and that stress was contributing to poor decision making (such as loosing keys, locking myself out) and negatively affecting my health.

2. Be where you are – Having the courage and fortitude to stay with where you are is a continuation of recognizing it. Many, many times I have found that if I stay with what is arising emotionally it will transform on its own. If I fight it, deny it or cover it up it comes back with more furry later. Staying with terrifying emotions and deep, deep sadness allowed issues from a decade or more to surface, be seen and healed. Referring to my previous post, there is power in being present with what is there. I assure you it is well worth the pain of the moment.

3. Nourish yourself – If you are tired, sleep! If you are hungry, eat! Eat well and take supplements that will renew where you are depleted. Stress takes a toll on health which takes a toll on everything else. Even Especially in the midst of a crisis it is important to take care of yourself. I called on my fabulous friend and ally, Friendly Herbalist Kate Temple-West, for herbal magic and scheduled a massage appointment to ease my aching muscles. Herbal baths and rest when I could make the time for it shifted the stress from overwhelm into manageable. My body thanks me for this now and will love me for it later.

4. Know that “this too shall pass” – it always does.

5. Recognize the end and let it go – Shake it off (literally if you need to) and move on. In the wild when animals experience fear they respond then shake it off to release all the stress hormones that built up in the system. As humans few of our crisis require great feats of physical strength yet our systems still respond as if they did. Releasing these is critical - shake, dance wildly, have sex, run into nature and scream it out! Release it. I promise you'll feel better.