~How to Create Inner Calm in a World Gone Crazy with CoronaVirus ~
20+ Favorite Tips to find peace, reduce stress and anxiety, and keep your emotional immune system strong NOW!
Enjoy our favorite practices to stay sane, healthy, grounded and sensual when the world is going mad ~ created and shared by my incredible network of VITA™ certified Love, S€x & Relationship coaches around the world! * these practices are designed for adults, but many are suitable to share with your children * if any of these practices resonate, please share this, and follow the individual coaches!
WHY is reducing stress so important- especially now? Science proves that when we are anxious and stressed, our brains go into survival mode. We no longer have access to our full cognitive functions, or make the best decisions. Also, in this state we release cortisol and adrenaline, which can lower our immune system and make us more susceptible to illness. These hormones that help us escape an IMMEDIATE threat (like running from a lion) actually become toxic if they continue circulating in our body with no outlet. Learning how to calm our own nervous system is a key to a healthy and happy (and disease resilient) life!
1. Grounding Practice
Sit or lie on the earth (best), or in a chair. Get comfortable and close your eyes, feeling the earth supporting and holding you with gravity. Start deep breaths through your mouth or nose, deep into your belly, with longer exhales. Inhale, count to 4. Exhale, count to 8. Begin imagining on each inhale you are growing a root, or a cord of light down into the center of the earth. On the exhale, imagine pulling up that earthy, grounded, safe feeling into your belly. On each inhale, connect down into the earth, on each exhale pull up the earth energy, and allow any stress or anxiety to flow into the earth- imagine it being replaced by safety, grounding of the earth. Do 10 breaths this way. When you are finished, take a moment to notice any shifts in your body that feel more relaxed or calm. You can also repeat this sequence as needed.
What this practice does: deep breathing is proven by science to change the chemistry of your blood to calm heart rate, reduces cortisol and anxiety because the longer exhale calms the parasympathetic nervous system. Visualization invites a sense of safety, security and connection to the earth deep into your body.
Shared by Harmony Scott Free guided body wisdom meditation-> www.harmonyscottcoaching.com @harmonys.universe
2. How to Release Stress in the Body- Guided Practice Video
To release stress we need to release it through our body. Here's 3 ways that I demo in this video to move the fear, anxiety and stress through your body which includes a really fun adult tantrum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3lOLQsctSQ
Shared by Emma Speigler www.emmaspiegler.com @emmaspiegler
3. Find Pleasure, Enjoy Life
When was the last time you did something you enjoyed so much, you lost track of time?
When you were in such a pleasurable state, hours went by and you didn’t even notice?
How was the rest of your day after that experience?
How did you treat others? Your family?
In my experience, I tend to be much happier, kinder, and more patient after these times.
When you are in these pleasurable states, your brain is functioning from the highest level, the mid prefrontal cortex. This enables you to access more creativity, and higher cognitive function. You are accessing your action points.
We can respond vs. react. We can creatively problem solve. We can appreciate and enjoy more.
When we are acting from a place of pain or suffering, the opposite is true. We go into our primal brain function. Reactive. Fearful. Fight or flight. Lashing out.
I’ve learned to try to actively choose to put myself in a state of pleasure.
If the state of the world has you concerned right now, it is more important than ever to pursue pleasure. Your joy. So you can function from a place of creativity.
Also, when you are living in a beautiful, pleasurable state of being, you are inspiring others to do the same.
We have mirror neurons that relate to others by observing them, and matching to your own internal reactions and experiences. That’s why for example when you see someone get hit by a Frisbee, you recoil. Or if you see someone laughing, it can become contagious.
Or if you are seeing a bunch of negative stuff on FB that will affect your state.
This is why, in my humble opinion, pursuing your pleasure is one of the best ways to save the world. I’ve said this before and will again, as mother Teresa says, the best way to save the world is to go home and love your family.
How can you do this?
❤️Watch something funny.
❤️Listen to music that lights you up.
❤️Enjoy the sun on your face for 2 minutes.
❤️Take action on causes that you are passionate about. Be creative and get involved.
❤️Do something for someone else.
❤️Volunteer.
❤️Praise someone else, write a thank you note.
❤️Make love, All these things will help move your brain into a higher functioning plane.
Maybe even just tapping into something stable, neutral - feeling the chair beneath you, feeling your feet on the ground, knowing gravity is holding you to the earth, that the sun will rise each morning, you CAN find something of stability to focus on.
If you want to go deeper, this Sensuality Meditation will help drop you into your body, into what feels good, so you can emerge from your meditation feeling calm, grounded, present, safe, and ready to move forward with grace. www.amandatesta.com/sensuality
Tapping into your pleasure and finding more ways to bring more pleasure and joy to the world will help bring hope and possibility.
Please share if you know of any women who can benefit.
Let's all tap into pleasure (yes even if it feels impossible, there is a way to connect to something good or stable) and bring more JOY to the world! Xoxo
Much love, from Amanda Testa
S€x + Relationship Expert, Host of the Find Your Feminine Fire Podcast
4. Immune System Boost Meditation
This guided meditation is a great energizer and helps calm down your nervous system, and elevates your immune system response to protect you from illness and stress and improve recovery time. .
Click here to go to the meditation
Shared with love by Marianne van Katwijk www.mariannevankatwijk.com @unleashyourwildness
5. A warm, soothing drink
First thing in the morning, make a cup of warm something (tea, water with lemon & honey), put on some soothing music, breathe deeply, hold the warm soothing cup in your hands, with each sip, think of something you are grateful for, as the warm nourishing liquid slides into your system, feel the gratitude in your system as well. Aligning the warm, nourishing, sensations in your body, with the gratitude and nourishment in your being, is an incredibly calming and grounding way to start the day. This practice is also good right before bed. 💖💖💖💖Shared by Jamie Lee Colyer
6. Laughter
Laughter keeps you healthy! Even if you don't feel like laughing, just go for it - make a funny face, try to bring up those angles of your mouth.
Laughing and even just smiling is proven by science to lower the stress hormones adrenaline and cortisol and distracts from pain. When you laugh, serotonin is released more often. This is also known as the happiness hormone. So if you laugh and smile a lot, you feel better.
Effect of Laughing
Laughter affects your breathing, your circulation, your metabolism is boosted, the susceptibility to infections is reduced and thus your immune system improves, your mind and psyche can adapt better to the current situation.
Shared by Franziska Campiche www.franziska-campiche.com
7. Make Love! … to yourself and/or to your partner (if you are both healthy).
What happens in your body when having S€x or when self-pleasuring?
The brain releases oxytocin in large quantities, when it comes to tender skin contact, s€xual arousal and orgasm. A high concentration of oxytocin has a calming effect and reduces anxiety, makes you less sensitive to pain and activates the immune system. Dopamine, the pleasure hormone has an important role as well. During s€xual activity it pours out more and creates a state of happiness and balance and prevents depressive moods. Endorphins - the happiness hormones, are released in events that we experience as positive. During s€x, they reach the whole body, especially during orgasm. But the production is also stimulated by caresses and positive thoughts. Endorphins “reward” you with feelings of happiness, happiness is a higher state of vibration therefore again, helps you feel better, feeling better makes your immune system stronger! Make love!
Shared by Franziska Campiche www.franziska-campiche.com
8. Releasing Tension
We hold most of our tension, fear and stress in our jaw.
So this practice is useful to relax the jaw and let the tension out.
It is called The Apple on the Branch.
Imagine there's an apple hanging from a branch above your head; so tasty and delicious. But your hands are full so you cannot take it.
You are going to bite it right from the branch above your head.
Stretch your head back, and bite. Tense as you bite. And after such a bite, you'll need to relax the jaw, open wide, wider... Relax.
And go back for another bite.
Relax again by opening your mouth as much as possible, and let out a sound as you do.
And repeat a third time.
Add some funny faces to relax your facial muscles, let your tongue out, open your eyes wide, play with your expressions, exploring for muscles you were unaware of before. This will most likely make you look silly, laugh at yourself. Finishing with a good laugh is the healthiest part.
Shared by Sasha Cueto www.sasha-cueto.com @sasha_cueto
9. Loving Self-Care
Just take a moment to slow down, think of something or somewhere you would love to do or would love to be. Imagine how it feels, how it looks. What would you be doing? Consciously take a few breaths, while being in this visualisation. And then take another couple of breaths consciously relaxing on the exhale. Notice what happens in your body. What is shifting? Then ask yourself, what do you need? What does loving care look like right now? It can be as small as stroking or hugging yourself, put on some music, do a little dance, sing a song, get yourself a cup of tea or make a call to a loved one.
What this practice does: It activates the parasympathetic nervous system, through relaxing the breath and activating the exhale. It grounds you back in the present moment and supports you feeling into what you need most right now.
Shared by Margo Groeneveld (website in progress: ginmi.org)
10. Shaking and Sounding
Stand with your feet about a hip’s width distance apart, or a little bit wider. Bend your knees slightly and, being mindful not to injure yourself, begin shaking your whole body. Shake however feels good to you, gently or more intensely, supporting the energy of anxiety to move out of you. As you shake your body, feel free to make sounds that express the energy of anxiety, as quietly or as loudly as you like. Do this for at least two minutes, longer if it feels good. Complete the exercise by standing in silence and feeling for a place within your body that feels calm. Focus your awareness on this calm stillness within you.
Shared by Katie Love www.katie-love.com
11. Prayers
Prayers might seem foreign for some people, especially if you don’t call yourself religious. But we can also believe in The universe, a greater mind, the power of the earth, the stars or even the force of Love.
Whatever you choose to believe in that is greater than us, sit down in stillness and pray.
It can be supportive to hold your hands together in prayers or over your heart.
If you are scared or in stress/anxiety you can even ask for relief from this greater mind.
Feel love and light pouring over you. Feel blessings pouring over you. Filling up all of your cells.
You can pray for yourself, you can pray for your loved ones, you can pray for all human beings, you can pray for all Living beings and for this earth to come back into wholeness and love.
In a situation like this, where there is tons of information and many different people having many different opinions and “truths” – it’s important to connect to your inner being, your heart, to love. And to remember that you are infinite by nature. That you are always supported by something greater and to trust your own intuition and guidance more than anything else.
Prayers support you in feeling held, feeling faith and to come back to your own truth, your own center, it can soothe you in stressful situations, still your mind and “clear out the noise” (ie fear) so that you can come back to love.
Shared by Sandra Denise
www.bysandradenise.com @bysandradenise
12. Somatic guided visualisation
This 15 minute somatic guided visualization will nourish and soothe your nervous system, creating deep feelings of safety and peace during this challenging crazy time. Join here https://youtu.be/NITmFVp7_PI
Shared by Margot Schulman www.chooseloverevolution.com
Author of Choose Love: A Simple Path to Healthy, Joyful Relationships
13. Pleasure through the Chakras
A great way to boost your immune system during these uncertain times is self-pleasure. I don’t believe you can have too much self-love or self-pleasure in your life.
Find your favorite ways to pleasure yourself and focus on the chakras. Feel the pleasure circulating in the root chakra (perineum) and think of the color red
Move the pleasure up to the s€xual organs and think of the color orange
Move the pleasure to your power center in the solar plexus and think of the color yellow
Swirl the pleasure up to your heart and feel the yummy green energy.
Hum the pleasure from your throat and think of the color blue
Move the pleasure to the third eye and see the violet and trust your intuition
Finally move the pleasure up to the crown chakra and circulate the rainbow 🌈 of pleasure. Mmmmmm
Shared by Kimberly Lalley
14. Choose Love
Corona virus is contagious, so is fear, so is love. Choose wisely.
Love is the opposite of fear. The most radical choice you can make right now is the choice to pull against the status quo to embody love and to share love.
The state of the earth right now is due to dis-ease, the first step to overcoming this is to find ease and harmony and this starts by finding love within.
Healing the planet begins with healing ourselves.
Click here to download a Limitless love meditation
Shared By Asti Maree - www.astimaree.com @asti.maree
15. S€x Magic: Consciously create your inner state to thrive with high vibe emotions.
First recognize and honor what you are currently feeling. Find a way to liberate that emotion by movement, sound, and welcome it into your heart so it can be nourished. Then call in love, safety, health, abundance, belonging, and whatever else you desire to have resonating through your nervous system. Please remember that you are a powerful conscious creator. You can invite in the frequencies and affirmations that you want living within you. Then circulate these energies through your body, inhaling them up your back and down your front, then reverse the direction. Finish with some type of self pleasure and self soothing practice.
Shared by Brittney Bliss
Get this FREE guided audio S€x Magic practice here (coming ASAP) → www.brittneybliss.com/free @sexwithbliss
16. Inner Smile - Raise your Vibration
Choose joy, playfulness softness amid the chaos!
Pour yourself a glass of water. Go outside. Place the glass of water as your feet and imagine the rays of sunlight are blessing your water..
Stand feet hip width apart. Arms by your side and palms facing upwards. Gaze towards the sun. Feel the gentle rays of the sun kissing your face. Imagine that the healing light of the sun is being absorbed into your skin, all of the nourishment that you need, all of the vitamins you need. Feel your feet connected to the earth beneath you, know in this moment that you are fully supported in this moment and in the moments to follow. Feel the gentle air whispering around your ears of love and gentle playfulness. The wind is telling you a story of love, that she is here to carry away your worries and invite playfulness into your life. Will you let her? Imagine the golden sun penetrating your palms and filling up with happiness healing light. Place your hands onto your lower back to connect to your kidneys. Bring a half smile to your face. Imagine all of this healing, joyfilled energy flowing into your kidneys with each in breath and expanding on each out breath. Imagining that your entire body is filling up with joy, happiness and healing. That each cell is filled up and vibrating at the energy of an inner smile.
Once you feel your practice is complete. Drink the glass of water. Bring your hands in prayer position at your heart giving thanks for your practice.
Shared by Michelle Grattan
17. Heart Meditation: Focus on health at the cellular level
This is a great way to take 10 mins to re-wire your reactions and focus your intention on ability to fill yourself up with perfect health, and can be incorporated to realign yourself at the start of the day or during the day when you feel triggered you read or hear.
The practice: Set your timer for ten minutes, sit with your feet on the ground or cross-legged. Keep breathing into the centre of your chest. With each inhale, imagine your heart like a donut opening outwards and expanding as far as you can take. As you exhale, imagine the donut relaxing back into your heart space. Allow the pulsing, expansion and contraction with each set of inhale and exhale.
After a few inhales and exhales, keep imagining your heart space opening and relaxing with the rhythm of your breath. As you continue the heart expansion sequence, with the next inhale, breathe the image (or just the word, if that is what comes naturally to you) of what “perfect health” is into all of your cells. As you exhale, all the image of “perfect health” that has entered all your cells sit in each cell as if it was being soaked up. For the rest of the ten minutes, continue to all your heart to expand and relax, as you breath “perfect health” into your cells and soak it in.
The practice of the heart expansion, allows us to rewire the need to contract, tense up and close our heart during times of stress and fear.
Shared by: Andrea Tan - Love & Intimacy Coach
www.facebook.com/TheAthenaRising @theathenarising
18. Practice to do with Kids at Home ~ Humming Bee Breathing
Take a deep and comfortable inhale through your nose
Exhale making a hummmm sound in your throat (mouth closed) softly
Keep going like that for 10 breaths
Then close your eyes and keep breathing/humming for 10 more
Then also close your ears (gently with your fingers) for 10 more breaths/humming ( so that you can hear the bees inside)
At the end feel the vibrations of the humming in your jaws, face...
This is very soothing for both adults and kids
Some kids like to humm to higher pitch and loud to have fun, it’s ok but try to invite them to make a low and gentle sound instead 😉
Shared by: Camille Busson Thompson
19. Shake It Out
When you begin to feel fear or anxiety, choose a song that represents your emotion. Begin to move your body intuitively. This is not a choreography and doesn’t have to look good, it’s about how you feel. You can either dance, or shake, or stretch and even sing really loud - as long as you are moving. When your song is complete, lay down on the floor, let Mother Earth hold you and feel the vibration of your being. Place a hand on your heart and a hand on your womb (or belly) space and repeat “I am safe. I am powerful. I am loved.” Our bodies hold on to our emotions, and it's so important to have a regular practice of releasing so they don't bog you down!
Shared by Jerry Souter www.jerrysouter.com @thejerrysouter
20. Safety self-talk
Whenever you feel your mind running in fear or panic mode, take a moment to close your eyes, give yourself a hug, and repeat out loud "safety, safety, safety" to yourself. This self-talk activates all levels of the brain to tell not only your mind, but your whole body that you are safe in this moment, letting your nervous system relax.
Shared by Claudia S.
21. Body Meditation
Sitting or laying down notice your body touching the seat or bed. Breathe at your own pace. Start scanning your body. Notice thoughts, emotions and/or body sensations that are troublesome. Any tightness, fogginess, unease... Focus on one of them and be with it. With your presence communicate to this part of you that it is not alone, that you are there with it. Send some loving presence and energy to it. If there’s any movement or sound your body wants to do naturally, let it. It’s possible that sensation shifts in a few minutes, but it’s ok if it doesn’t. It is possible it just needs a little more time, make an appointment of sorts to come back to it, and move on to the next troublesome part. Repeat until each part of you has received some love and attention. Now start switching your focus on the outside of you. Notice that you can still be aware and present with yourself, even though your focus is on the outside now.
Shared by Natalia Rising
22. Relaxing Bath Ritual
Set up a ritualistic space that works for you. You may consider candles, incense, having a warm cup of tea or a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed fruit juice, essential oils, salts and bubbles, relaxing music.
Once in the bathtub, allow your body to surrender to the water and its healing, restorative energies. Visualize a pearl light mixed with the water, so that every part of your body is immersed in this beautiful, loving, relaxing and healing light.
Cultivate thoughts of love and compassion to all the suffering in the world. You may consider repeating in your mind:
May I be well
May I be happy
May I open my heart to love and compassion
May all beings be well
May all beings be happy
May all beings open their hearts to love and compassion.
Shared by: Marina Nabão www.marinanabao.com / @marinanabao
23. Listen to Your Heart - Let Her Guidance In
Whenever you feel worry thoughts, anxiety or fears, a very simple exercise that is also HUGELY Powerful is to Connect Within! 🌹 Go somewhere you can be uninterrupted and alone for at least the next 5-10 minutes, if possible. Once there, get in a position that is comfortable and soothing. Then gently close your eyes, and take slow, gentle breaths. Next, place one or both hands on your heart, and ask it: What do I MOST need to know, Right Now? What will help me?
And allow yourself to hear and feel whatever it is your heart shares! Her wisdom is soothing, it is also very powerful and loving! Allow yourself to take it in, along with how it feels in your body as you receive Her message.
Shared By: Christa Norris
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristaNorris.9/ @christanorris_shapeyourworld
24. Audio Ritual - Cultivating the Energy of Trust in the Body
Questions and uncertainty around our health and the health of those we love, can shake up the nervous system and leave us feeling ungrounded and lost. Enjoy this podcast episode as a respice during the challenging moments where TRUST could provide a sense of safety and a calm restoration.
The energy of TRUST can help us all ground back in, make decisions and take action from our most empowered parts, instead of only from fear and worry. Compassion isn't as accessible when we're in full on self-protective mode. And we ALL need to care for this together as much as we can. Click here to access the Audio Ritual
Shared by: Xine La Fontaine
FB Group: S€xy, Free & Making Sh*t Happen, IG: @mlle_xine
Thank you for joining us! We hope some of these practices will support you to find inner calm, peace and spaciousness during this time. Please share!
Much love! Harmony & The VITA™ Love, S€x & Relationship Coaches
