In this episode we talk about the ol' dilemma of not enough time. The thing is, when we're trying to build new patterns it's not about the length of time, but how often we practice.
We often think of self-care as something we do when we're stressed or anxious, but what if I told you that it's equally crucial to practice it even when we're feeling good? It's all about teaching our system something new, creating a positive pattern that helps prevent future stress.
Whether it's focused attention on your breath or another technique, just a few minutes can make a remarkable difference. As we wrap up, remember, choosing yourself and prioritizing self-care are non-negotiable, no matter how much or little time you have.
Get in there and give it a listen for more.
Resources:
Manage Your Stress Mentorship
Discovery call
You can find more about Brain-Body Resilience and JPB:
On the BBR Website
On Instagram
On Facebook
Sign up for the BBR newsletter
In this episode we talk about the ol' dilemma of not enough time. The thing is, when we're trying to build new patterns it's not about the length of time, but how often we practice.
We often think of self-care as something we do when we're stressed or anxious, but what if I told you that it's equally crucial to practice it even when we're feeling good? It's all about teaching our system something new, creating a positive pattern that helps prevent future stress.
Whether it's focused attention on your breath or another technique, just a few minutes can make a remarkable difference. As we wrap up, remember, choosing yourself and prioritizing self-care are non-negotiable, no matter how much or little time you have.
Get in there and give it a listen for more.
Resources:
Manage Your Stress Mentorship
Discovery call
You can find more about Brain-Body Resilience and JPB:
On the BBR Website
On Instagram
On Facebook
Sign up for the BBR newsletter
What is up? Hello there. My name is Jessica Paching Bunch, you can call me JPB, and this is Brain Body Resilience. This is a podcast dedicated to growth, human development and stressing a little bit less so you can go ahead and live a little bit more.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome back to episode number 161 of the Brain Body Resilience podcast. I am still your host, jpb, and today I have a little reflection and kind of a note to self and reminder for anyone else who might need it. I was at a Christmas gathering recently yesterday, to be exact December 10th and I was talking about my trip with some friends and I said you know, I just got home this month on the 11th, and someone reminded me that it is now December and the 11th has not happened yet. And I realized that I have been home for a month now and time flies by, time continues to move forward and keeps moving no matter what we're doing. And even though my trip wasn't the movie montage of meditation and exercise that I had imagined, I did create a solid morning routine including reading, journaling, lymphatic massage, somatic shaking, meditation, breath practice, a nice walk, some coffee, yummy, fresh, sweet bread, and it was lovely. And it took a couple of hours, which I don't have every morning here.
Speaker 2:Back in my usual routine and I guess that's not true I do have that time I could get up at five and do all of the things, but I am solid in my don't love getting up early era and I embrace that. And part of that is making sure that I'm getting plenty of sleep to protect my brain, because lack of sleep is a contributor to seizure activity. It's also one of the worst things just overall for brain function. We know that chronic lack of sleep is linked to a ton of health problems, including trouble, self-regulating anxiety, stress, depression, and that's just a drop in that bucket. So all of that to say that I choose sleep and name all of those things as evidence that I need more of it, which you know, I'll take that for now. So, anyway, I could choose to get up and spend two hours in my routine, and I may do that again at some point, but that is not right now and I'm finding it much harder to fit a couple of minutes here and there with my preventative routines, feeling like it's not the time I want. So I'll just wait until I have more time. This may come as a shock, but that happens day after day, because unless we make time, it doesn't just appear. The thing is, there will never be more time. We have to choose how we use the time that we do have and until I am willing to pull the time away from other things. What I have time for is a few minutes here and there between all of the other things that I have going on in my day, and the good news is that that is plenty of time, no matter how we think or feel about it being enough or not enough to be worth it.
Speaker 2:When it comes to creating patterns in our brain and body, it's about frequency, not length of time. It's how often we do something, even if we only have a few minutes to do it, and the more we do something, the stronger that pathway gets. It's called practice and it's a real thing. This is why we practice. This is why we do things over and over again, so that we can build these patterns and strengthen them.
Speaker 2:Having the tools to actually and actually using them are different things. We know this. We know what to do and actually doing it are very different. We can know what to do all day long, but if we don't take action, it's not helping us. If we're only reaching for the tools that we do have when we need immediate relief, it may not help as much as it would if we practiced in other times where we were not needing that immediate help, when we're not super stressed, when we're not in the middle of anxiety. The tools only work when you use them, and there are tools for immediate relief and tools to help prevent and redirect the system, and a lot of the times those are the same tools. We just use them more frequently.
Speaker 2:Prevention means teaching your system something new. You can't like a new normal. You can't try something once and expect to do it perfectly. It is learning a new skill. It takes practice, and teaching your system a new way of communicating means you have to send messages over and over and over again to speak a new language. You have to practice so many times. We want to have that magic fix, something that we can pull out of our bag of tricks when we need it and that's it. And that's the only time we use it. That's the only time we pay attention to our tool.
Speaker 2:We're not just inputting code into a machine. As much as we have heard the comparison between our bodies and machines and our brains and computers. That's not how we work. Those are not accurate descriptions. We are not robots. Your brain and body are in constant communication. All systems of the body are in constant communication. What that communication is depends on what we do, how we think, how we move, how we breathe, how we eat, our social support. Every single experience we have is input for our system, a message. So even when we only have time to pick one tool in practice for one minute, we are still sending a certain message to our system.
Speaker 2:And remember, you are always sending messages, always communicating, and you can choose what you want to say with intention. So don't let the lack of time stop you. We have time to pull from somewhere else, always, even if it is that one or two minutes. And when I look and I know this is not, I know I'm not alone here when I look at how much time I spend actually scrolling or watching TV, I know that I have 10 minutes to borrow from that, even if I split that in between 5 minutes 2 times a day. 2 minutes 5 times a day. Whatever it is, you have got that time and it's going to take intention. It's going to take dedication to you and your future self. You will have to choose you. You will have to choose what you want more than the immediate comfort of avoiding work and scrolling and distracting and numbing. You will have to choose to intervene. You'll have to choose intention, choose to interrupt the automatic response and habits. Your brain loves efficiency, so it takes the things that you do, the thoughts that you think most often, and it makes habits out of these things and thoughts, thoughts and things. It automates them so you don't have to use your conscious energy there, so that you have that energy to use on other things that are new and different.
Speaker 2:And one of the best ways to interrupt that autopilot and have space to choose intention is to breathe, pause into the moment Over and over. Breathe, pause into your day. Build awareness around each breath. You notice Each pause that you give yourself. Bring awareness to that In those moments. You have that space between your pause and then the next action that you take, and that is where you get to choose what happens next. So, my friend, this is a reminder to myself and I offer it to you if you need it.
Speaker 2:Two minutes absolutely counts. If that's all you've got, do that and then do it again tomorrow. Choose to create messages to yourself. Choose you. The tools cannot help you if you won't let them Choose you, because you choose what you do next and keep choosing. And the best thing about that is that you have endless moments in this life to choose, so choose yourself. I see that we are under 10 minutes here, which I love because I am going to give you whatever two to five minutes. You had planned on listening to more of me and I'm going to give that time back to you to choose a tool to practice. Even if you're driving, even if you're cleaning, you can choose to pay attention to your breath. If you are not, you can choose whatever tool you want to practice. So I hope that you take a couple of minutes. Give them to yourself right now. Thank you for being here, endlessly grateful always. I will check back in next week. Until then, I hope you have a beautiful week. I am out of here.