How can we silence our overheated brain, overcome our blockages, calm our impulsiveness? Among the avenues to explore: flow, or how to slow down our mental activity. Here are a few ideas, from which everyone can draw inspiration according to their urgency, tastes and temperament.
- Decide
As a preliminary, here are some basic propositions that we can never repeat enough.
-“Unplugging”: knowing how to turn off your smartphone, make yourself unavailable and silence the voices that make us anxious (information, files to hand in, and even friends who want the best for us…) is sometimes an internal survival reflex.
-“Delegate”: accepting that a task may be done less well, less quickly and/or not being afraid that it may be done better, this is what we hate the most.
-“Give up on perfection”: it can only lead to dissatisfaction and/or burnout.
-“Walk, run, swim, sing, get some exercise”: physical activities have the merit of keeping our thoughts away, of increasing our hormones of relaxation and pleasure. In short, of calming our muscular and psychological tensions.
“Laugh, play, spend time with children, animals, nature”: carefree attitude is contagious and can only help you gain perspective.
- Expire
“Get into the action without expecting the fruits. This definition of letting go is precisely that of yoga, explains Katia Marynower. On the mat, there is no injunction to succeed in anything. In Sanskrit, the definition of posture (asana) is sthira-shukra (firmness-ease), that is to say the balance between the inner intention of going towards (a bend, a twist, a balance…) and precisely letting go: once we are established in the posture, we let each exhalation dissolve the tensions and allow ourselves to gradually settle into it comfortably.
This state of being that we experience concretely in the posture is then invited to slip little by little into our daily life. In a way of also returning to the essential, calming our desire to control everything, to manage everything.”
- Listen
“Music is the most accessible and immediate way to let go,” observes Édith Lecourt. “A lot of research in neurology has proven this for a long time: it is notably an essential element for relaxation, rest, and analgesia. The brain is quickly invaded by music, it disconnects from its obsessive thoughts, its worries. But not just any music! Slow and repetitive music (relaxation style) can be deeply irritating for some people, who need more rhythm. You have to listen to yourself and not let yourself be guided by the tastes of others. The important thing is therefore to find music that echoes what you are.”
- Reformulate
What if removing a few words from our vocabulary could help us get out of the control-duty-will paradigm? This is what Paul-Henri Pion suggests.
-“Every time you are about to say “but” silently rephrase what you were going to say by replacing “but” with “and”. Result: less opposition, less contradictions and contradictory injunctions in us. A little respite, in short.
-“Every time you hear a sentence with the verbs “have” or “must”, whatever their tense, mood or person: silently rephrase it with the verb “could” instead.” Same relief guaranteed.
-“Every time you say “because…” or start justifying your actions or intentions, silently think: “Because” is useless…” End of many “headaches”.
- Meditate
“In everyday life, as in combat, there are times when you have to know how to dodge, not act, notes Jean Sixou. Mindfulness mediation is the royal road to this letting go that we could also call flexibility or flow: a time of recovery, preparation and development of action.”
- Visualize
As sophrologist Michèle Freud reminds us, “most relaxation techniques begin with awareness of breathing, but we can use visualization, in particular to free the mind from its ruminations, for example by imagining a flower that opens when inhaling and closes when exhaling.”
- Feel
“Whether we swallow them like medicine, use them topically or inhale them, essential oils have powerful effects, particularly against stress, anxiety and parasitic thoughts,” recalls Francoise Couic Marinier.