As an adult I recognize that there are times when I need to go to my room for a Time Out. There are days when EVERYTHING went wrong. Work was horrible and stressful. Traffic was a mess. Everybody driving in front of you was competing for Slowest Driver of the Year (and they were ALL winning!) and nothing was going your way. On those days I arrive at home in a foul mood looking for things to break on purpose. That’s when I put myself into Time Out. I’m serious.

I stretch out on the bed and try to calm myself. That means no electronics, no distractions and no more enraging thoughts. If I can have the window open I listen to the birds or the outside noise. I try to coax Bob up onto the bed so that I can spend time with him. I try to keep all thoughts out of my head so that I can just chill for a bit. After 10 to 30 minutes (depending on how worked up I was originally) I am calm enough to continue on with my day. Shutting out everything that frustrates you helps you to release some of those emotions so that you can calmly and reasonably work out the issues. You need to channel your inner Spock, or maybe even Yoda.

Positive. Happy. Furry. Calming. Thoughts.

I am writing this on my lunch break and it’s one of those days… again. Before I get to the point where I send myself to bed I thought that maybe I would take a quick little mini Time Out here at work. Do you want to join me? There’s plenty of room for everybody.

Pull up a chair and take a deep breath. Block out any excess noise. As you concentrate on the picture that I will post below this paragraph, imagine yourself sitting there with the warm sun on your shoulders. Can you feel the breeze? Can you hear the birds? Are you dipping your toes in the water? Perhaps you are on a float in the water. Look up at the sky and watch the clouds as they change shape and move past. Just be there in the moment…. Take about 10  minutes to really try this exercise and I promise it will begin to help any stress and anxiety. It will calm you if you block out everything else except being in that moment in the picture. Relax. Take deep breaths. Just be….