In many of my articles on stress relief I recommend doing “absolutely nothing” – that is, deep breathing and a simple 5 minute meditation. The purpose is not only to de-stress, although it does a great job of relaxing, but also to reconnect us with our bodies and our energy, something that we often miss in our busy and stressful lives. When we are doing; looking, listening, speaking or touching, we are concentrating on everything but us.

When was the last time you entered a room and did not turn on the television, radio, computer, use the telephone, or read a newspaper?

Do you ever sit down, have a quick cup of tea and to think?

We do it when we need to make a shopping list or a to-do list, but we hardly ever do this process to think about ourselves, our ambitions, our job, or a relationship. In fact, we probably spend more time organizing our shopping list than organizing our lives.

Get in touch with your needs

If you often ignore or suppress your daily needs, which we often do when we have families for whom we are responsible, you will find this to be an easy way to get back in touch with your emotions and needs.

Try this simple 5 minute exercise once a week, or once a month if you prefer, which will reconnect your mind, body and spirit;

Sit quietly at the kitchen table, have a cup of tea or coffee if you like, but just sit and think. Think about what you want to do, either now or sometime in the near future. You might be thinking ‘I’d love to take a walk in the country this weekend’ or it could be ‘I’m really looking forward to doing that OU course next year.’ It doesn’t really matter what you think, as long as you’re thinking about you and your needs.

If you haven’t done it before and don’t know where to start, you can start by answering these 3 simple questions

Want ____________

I really wish I could _______________

I’d love to ________________

Please note that I have purposely kept the tone positive, this is a time to find out your needs and this should be based on positive things, not what you whose want. For instance; if you hate your job, think about positive ways that you can change it and find a more suitable job or you may even consider starting a whole new career and what you need to do to get there.

Once you start doing this exercise on a regular basis, you will find that the more you practice, the easier it will be and the ideas will pop into your head much more easily, a sure sign that you are back in touch with your needs and your mind. body and spirit reconnect.

Make sure to keep the focus of these sessions on you and your life; we spend more than enough time worrying about everyone else during our daily lives, this is the time to focus on your needs.