In this video, Lisa shares 5 methods we can use daily to proactively regulate and center ourselves when we are feeling anxious and overwhelmed.
Biographies
Lisa Dion, LPC, RPT-S
Lisa Dion is an international teacher, creator of Synergetic Play Therapy, founder and President of the Synergetic Play Therapy Institute, and host of the Lessons from the Playroom podcast. She is the 2015 recipient of the Association for Play Therapy’s Professional Education and Training Award of Excellence and the author of Aggression in Play Therapy: A Neurobiological Approach for Integrating Intensity. Lisa is also a Master Certified Demartini Method Facilitator providing education and support to individuals and organizations worldwide.
Ludmila Golovine
Ludmila Golovine is President/CEO of MasterWord Services, Inc., a global language solutions company. As a language professional, Golovine knows first-hand how interpreting, especially in the healthcare, social services, education, and legal arenas, may present challenges such as stress, anxiety, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma. For the past 10 years, she has applied her skills as a Certified Neuro-Linguistic Programming Practitioner and a Trained Demartini Method Facilitator to tirelessly help promote health and wellness to those in the language services industry.
Transcript
Ludmila Golovine:
Hello and thank you for joining us today. My name is Ludmila Golovin and I’m the president and CEO of Master Word Services. Lisa today the question is, can you give us some tips that we may be able to use to manage through the intensity and the anxiety that we may be experiencing today, that we may also be able to share with others and help them deal with the situation?
Lisa Dion:
Hi, everyone. My name is Lisa Dion and I am the president of the energetic play therapy Institute. And I want to give you five ways that you can regulate right now through all of this intensity that we are experiencing.
So, there’s a lot out there right now about what we can be proactively doing for self care and taking care of ourselves. But I want to give you five things that you can do in the moment when you’re feeling the intensity and the activation inside your physiology.
Okay, let’s start with number one. So, the first one has to do with your breath. Your breath right now is your greatest ally, so when we start to get disregulated and activated, our breathing changes and then often the pattern start to go like this. And so the very first thing that we can dio is to start to move towards more regulated breathing. So to start with, as we start to experience this, notice the disregulation and then begin to elongate your exhalation. So, maybe breath in for the count of two and then exhale for the count of four. So we are slowly starting to relax and slow down the breathing pattern. Once we’re able to do that, then move into regulated breathing, where your inhalation and your exhalation are equal count. So maybe at that point it’s your breathing in, maybe the count of two or three. And you’re exhaling also for the count of two or three. And make sure that when you’re doing these breasths that you’re doing full belly breathing. Okay, that’s number one.
All right, number two. Let’s go ahead and call number two push, and that’s a literal thing, push. So actually push on your body. So push on your arms, push on your legs. Maybe you are in the middle of a challenging conversation. Push, squeeze. When we start to feel really disregulated and activated, we can sometimes have a bit of an out-of-body experience where we’re not really connected to ourselves. The act of pushing on our body, even pushing on our head. This one’s my, my favorite. What we’re doing is we’re bringing in proprioceptive input into our body, which tells ourselves, I’m here, I’m in my body and it has a huge regulatory experience for us within. So push.
All right. Number three is also a bit of a version of push, but it’s not quite pushing. And this is where you take your ring finger and your thumb, and you put them right here on the sides of your nose, right there. And then you’re going to take this finger and put it right here, so you can see what I’m doing and, then breathe. This right here has a really centering experience. So if you’re feeling highly anxious. You’re feeling overwhelmed. Try this one to be able to connect with yourself in the moment. Okay.
Number four has soothe cold water. So, if again you’re feeling highly disregulated, splash cold water on your face. Maybe even put a cold towel on your face if you have the ability to do so, if you’re really disregulated, go and jump in the shower and take, take a shower. Splash water all over you. The experience of the cold water actually has a relaxing experience on our activation in our system.
Okay. And then the last one, number five is name it. Just name your experience out loud. One of the things that can intensify the disregulation in our system is holding it in and not naming it. So the simple act of being able to say I’m overwhelmed. I feel afraid. I’m scared. I feel lost. I’m sad. The simple act of just being able to name your inner experience out loud. Actually, we know this from research actually has a relaxing and a centering experience again within our own physiology. And of all of them, the most important one is the first one which is the breath. So always remember, your breath is your fastest way back home.