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Keep the Routine

English has the wonderful term “turkey trot.” It means a run, often short and with a focus on having fun instead of running fast, on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My friends in the UK tell me that they do their turkey trot after Christmas.

Even though organized races are canceled this year, you can still do your own “turkey trot”. Find your running shoes and go to a park or other nature near you and jog or walk for a mile. If you can’t jog the entire distance, run a little and walk a little.

As it becomes darker and colder, it is important that you keep up some kind of exercise routine. Even though your gym is closed and you’re working from home, you can still lace up your running shoes. Your body and your mind need the activity.

Give Thanks

My American friends celebrate Thanksgiving today, and I love that word. We don’t have a specific day for that purpose here in Denmark, but giving thanks is something we should all do every day.

Finding something to be grateful for and give thanks for puts you in a positive mood. Establishing a gratitude routine is an important technique that fights anxiety and stress. If you write a daily journal, put in something you are grateful for each day. If you have a bit of time to yourself in your morning routine, just sit quietly for a moment and think of something you are grateful for in that moment.

If you have difficulty finding a time to express your gratitude, do it before a meal. Saying grace before a meal is an ancient human tradition that cuts across cultures and religions. The reason people have always done it is that it works. It only takes a few seconds to close your eyes and say to yourself that you are grateful for this meal. Happy Thanksgiving.

Imagine

The human mind is able to imagine the future. That is a powerful ability that can help you realize your goals and achieve success. But if you suffer from anxiety, your mind can also imagine many unpleasant futures.

While you work on the root causes of your anxiety, you can improve your life by actively adding positive futures to the list of things that can happen. Every time you notice yourself imagining something bad happening, stop for a moment, and imagine the opposite situation. Once you have a positive situation in your mind, it is easy to add a couple of other positive variations. 

You can use the power of your mind to fill your imagination with positive futures to take power away from your anxiety.

Train Your Mind

You can train your body to lift heavier weights or to run faster. You might decide that being stronger or faster doesn’t matter to you, and that’s fine, as long as you maintain a basically healthy lifestyle. 

You can also train your mind. That has such a huge impact on your life that I believe everybody should do it. You train your mind by meditation, mindfulness, or simply relaxed breathing exercises. Whenever I give a talk, have a session with a client, present a webinar, or give a multi-day training class, I always include exercises you can use to train your mind.

You need to find some way to train your mind. You can read books (I recommend my own ;-), listen to podcasts or attend online trainings. I also have a two-hour online class coming up next Monday – you can read more and sign up here: https://vester.li/fcw.

Conversation Lifts the Spirit

This weekend, call someone you haven’t spoken to for a while. With home working and many events and celebrations canceled, we don’t meet as many people as we normally do. We don’t notice the lack of contact from day to day, but it does weigh us down.

You need to make an effort to contact someone, and they will appreciate the opportunity to talk to you. If there is anything they need, and you can help them with, even better.

Look Back in Gratitude

Today is my birthday, and I always use that day to look back and review my year. It has definitely not turned out the way I expected one year ago! Some things didn’t happen as planned, but many other things have happened that I’m grateful for.

I encourage you to also regularly take stock of what has happened in your life. Focus on the things you are grateful for. Write down some sentences starting “I am grateful that…”

If you cultivate a gratitude mindset, the turmoil of life has less effect on you, and you’ll be happier and healthier.

Look for the Good News

After a long period of bad news, we’re now also seeing glimmers of light. Two of the coronavirus vaccine candidates have shown surprisingly good results with a 90%+ efficiency, and there are another ten vaccines in the final testing phase before approval.

Make sure you appreciate it when you hear good news. If you have a daily news habit, set your intention to find a positive story before you start reading. News stories on death and disaster, unfortunately, get the most clicks, so there are more of those. But the positive stories are there, too. Look for them.

Talk to a Human

Your medical system might not always offer you the best option if you suffer from anxiety or depression. Some systems have been known to prefer having doctors prescribe pills instead of working on the underlying issues. That might be because traditional psychotherapy can take a long time, and it is cheaper to simply give the client a psychoactive drug.

You might have to look for an alternative yourself. I recommend the method I use and teach: Regenerating Images in Memory, RIM. My clients have always experienced a clear improvement within the first three sessions, and many have needed no more than that. You are welcome to schedule a free call with me to hear more about how I work. Click here to find an available time: https://vester.li/i04

Heal with your Mind

You might have heard about the placebo effect: Some people get well even though they are given a dummy pill that consists simply of starch and sugar.

Unfortunately, the positive effect has an evil twin: The nocebo effect. This causes people to experience symptoms even if given an inactive pill. They are so convinced they are given medicine with serious side-effects that a sugar pill will also cause symptoms.

Both effects show the fantastic power of our minds. We can think ourselves well, and we can think ourselves sick. Be careful to tell your mind you are well or getting better. It helps.

Celebrate Kindness

Today is World Kindness Day. The idea is to highlight good deeds in the community and focus on the common human trait of kindness. There are organized events and celebrations in some countries, but you can also celebrate kindness yourself – today and all other days.

Humans are a cooperative species and our basic instinct is to be kind to one another. There are billions of small acts of kindness happening every day all over the world. It is unkindness that is the exception. Unfortunately, the exceptions are what is reported in the news.

Start each day with an affirmation that you will be kind to someone that day. That will prime your brain to be on the lookout for opportunities to demonstrate kindness, and will make you notice the kindness others show you.