PRESS THE ECONOMY BUTTON

I'm looking at the economy button in the car. Press the button and the car consumes less energy and the driving becomes more environmentally friendly. But it takes a little longer to get to the destination. Imagine if the body had a button like that. A button you could press when it gets too stressful, to put the body in an energy-saving mode. Imagine if it were that easy to accept that things take time.

ENERGY THIEVES

Most of us know how easy it is to run out of energy. But why do we repetadly end up in a hamster wheel of stress that squeezes the last drop of energy out of us?

There are many energy thieves. You look on the internet and get tired of not knowing if what's being said is correct or if it's misinformation. Thoughts start to have a life of their own and eventually you don't know what to believe. You tense up and get tired.

You look at different diets and read about anti-inflammatory processes and think about all the things that need to be changed. You tense up and get tired.

You know that physical activity is key to feeling good. You read about the most effective way to train to feel better. You tense up at the thought of getting started and get tired before you even get going.

You read about how good it is to meditate and think that you need to get started with it. But the list of things you should do can become endless. There's always something that can be improved. But when will you have time to do everything that's meant to make you feel better? You tense up and get tired just thinking about it.

Is there a common denominator for all these energy thieves? Yes, actually, they all have to do with the future, that you should do something that makes you feel better later. That's when thoughts, feelings, and body become unbalanced. When thoughts race towards a better version of ourselves somewhere in the future, the body can't keep up. It never gets a break and the feeling of being dissatisfied with who you are right now takes off again. It takes an enormous amount of energy to never be satisfied with who you are and where you are. Breathing becomes shallow, muscles tense, and you get a number of scary symptoms like dizziness, palpitations, strange pains, and a feeling of being drained of energy.

STOP THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

How do you get out of the downward spiral? Press the economy button, let thoughts, feelings, and body come into balance. Slow down the thoughts that want to make you believe that you always need to get better, that some quick advice will fix your well-being. Try to stay in the present moment and embrace what is right now. By anchoring yourself in the "Witness position" you will slowly realize that you can choose your thoughts, and that you don't have to believe everything you think.

When you stop chasing solutions outside yourself, you will slowly realize that you have the solution within yourself. Think of the old story from Greek mythology;

"The gods had created the humans and the whole world. Now there was only the truth about life to be hidden. But where should they hide it, so that humans couldn't find it? The different gods came up with many suggestions. One suggested hiding it on one of the other planets, another in the center of the earth, a third in another solar system. Finally, the eldest of the gods exclaimed; I know, we'll hide it within the human themselves because that's the last place they'll look!"

To strengthen your "witness position", you can do the exercise "The Journey Through the Body". You find it in my book; “Regaining Balance, the Swedish Healthcare Method to Reduce Stress, Anxiety and Pain", available on amazon.com