Connection Gems

The Connection Gem of the week applies Mindful Compassionate Dialogue to situations in daily life and offers clarity and practical skills. You can find an archive of Connection Gems using the list or search engine below.

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LaShelle Lowe-Chardé LaShelle Lowe-Chardé

How to Resource in the Expansive Perspective

As we face these unusual times, it is even more important to remind ourselves to pause throughout the day to become grounded and resourced. To resource yourself is to return to a source of nourishment, grounding, and support.

As we face these unusual times, it is even more important to remind ourselves to pause throughout the day to become grounded and resourced. To resource yourself is to return to a source of nourishment, grounding, and support. 

Resourcing can be as simple as pausing to notice where you are tense and then letting your shoulders relax, letting your face relax, sitting back in your chair with a straight spine, and taking a long deep breath noticing the air filling you and exhaling fully.  Remind yourself of your true intention in the moment. In addition to simple practices like these, focusing on expanding awareness and perspective is a foundation upon which you can maintain groundedness and resource in the face of stress. 

Non-reactive awareness is fundamentally expansive. From a place of expansive awareness, you can be present for what’s happening, rather than being pulled or pushed around by anxious thoughts or fearful feelings. Here are some strategies to return to and maintain expanded awareness: 

  1. Engage in meaningful contribution

  2. Express gratitude and celebration throughout the day

  3. Direct attention to one of the five senses and stay attuned to that sense for three full breaths

  4. Direct attention to an anchor and hold it there for three minutes

  5. Sense the area around your body and slowly expand out to fill the room.

  6. Begin every day with meditation and clear intentions 

  7. Look out into nature as far as you can see and stay looking until you feel tension release

  8. Review and repeat expansive beliefs as often as possible

  9. Commit to identifying and interrupting unhelpful thought patterns the moment they arise. 

  10. Study and contemplate that which inspires you to be grounded in a larger truth or perspective. 

Pause often throughout the day to engage one of these strategies or other trusted strategies that you already have. The more often you return expansive practices the more you will maintain connection to what’s most important. This centering in your values will guide you to wise and compassionate action. 

Compulsive anxiety and imagining dire events cannot take hold of you when you are consistently attending to an expansive perspective and awareness. 

Practice

Take a moment right now and look out the window or close your eyes. Set your intention to pause several times today and direct your attention in a way that will help you relax and expand.

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