Nurture a State of Calm
A large part of preventing burnout or mental health distress is equipping yourself with the tools to nurture a state of calm even in the presence of stressful events, circumstances, or unwanted challenges. This first requires that you reconsider your relationship with your unwanted thoughts. How do you listen to that part of you that seems to dictate how you should feel about yourself and the world around you? Is there a tendency to add more thoughts in the hopes of making things better? How long does such a strategy last to keep those unwanted thoughts away before they all come back ready to take hold of you again? There is a better way forward- one that requires you to make friends with your entourage of unwanted thoughts and difficult emotions by using a method known as R.A.P.*
Release – Accept – Practice
The next time you feel besieged by unwanted thoughts or even difficult emotions, breathe, and practice the following:
- Release your strong hold on your internal dialogue that seems to dictate what you ought to do by shifting your attention toward what is fundamentally important to you in that moment, and aligning your actions accordingly. Whatever is important to you now may change over time due to new experiences brought on by exposure to different contexts and people. Therefore, you will constantly be renewing your capacity to release throughout your entire life.
- Accept all emotions as not being good or bad, but rather as part of the human experience and that working with them and not against them reinforces a way of life that is liberating and open to learning.
- Practice choice in how you respond to challenges by way of behavioral habits and decisions that sustain and promote mental health. Challenges can be seen by the mind as obstacles to be either avoided or embraced as part of your life-long journey.
Learn to Walk your Brain with Compassion
R.A.P. is strengthened as you deliberately choose compassion. Remember: “Where attention goes, energy flows”. Learning to walk your brain with compassion means thinking or reasoning in a way that includes recognizing your thoughts as being mental events, without judgement of good or bad. Release, accept and practice, again and again.
Lean on a Coach When You Need One
Don’t forget, a proactive approach to your mental health can also include speaking to an experienced and credentialed coach to help guide you through what is keeping you stuck. Our coaches can help you decide what behavioural habits can be secured in place to help you practice so that you can walk your brain with compassion.
*R.A.P. was developed by Dr. Mirella De Civita (President and Founder of Grand Heron International) as part of a Mental Health Guide used by Papillon MDC Inc. client leaders as they work toward restoring their mental health.
