See this second video for more information about tapping:
The second thing I would say is, okay, so you’re not feeling great and you’re acknowledging it. How long do you want to feel that way? There are things that we can do that can make you feel better. So if you’re feeling really worked up and overwhelmed, you can be with the emotion, you can acknowledge it. That’s the first thing. The second thing is, that I would say to you, that there are some strategies that you can do. I really like, Mark, a breathing technique called the four, seven, eight breathing technique. Have you ever heard of that one before?
Mark: No, I haven’t. Yeah. No, it’s strange that you want to mention that.
Rocky: Yeah. I really like this one and it’s super simple. It’s just about putting your tongue to the roof of your mouth, behind your two front teeth, and then you breathe in for four, you hold for seven and then you breathe out for eight with this whooshing sound.
It does look weird. But if you do that three times and then just go back to your regular breath, I absolutely promise you, you’ll just be like … It’s going to help you a lot before you go to bed, you’re going to have a much better night’s sleep and sleep is critical right now. Sleep is the absolute foundation for all of our mental health and wellbeing. I can tell you, Mark, that I track my sleep and it hasn’t been as good as it has been in the last two weeks.
I use this thing called this WHOOP Strap. They actually track millions of people around the world and they sent this report through showing the same, that people’s sleep all across the world has taken a hit. If you’re not tracking it, you’re probably more than likely not sleeping that great during this time. If you’re not sleeping well, all bets are off. Everything I say here is not going to work that well because sleep is the most important part of what we do in regards to mental health and wellbeing.
But going back to the breathing technique, let’s just do one round. Breathe in for four, hold for seven, out for eight. I’m not going to talk through it because I can’t talk and do it at the same time, but I’m just going to do one round, right?
Mark: When you say breathing for four, you’re talking about four seconds?
Rocky: To the count of four. Then breathe out for seven, two, three, four, five, six, seven. You hold for seven and then you breathe out for eight. Breathe in for the count of four, hold for the count of seven, breathe out for the count of eight. You do that three times through, your body will feel really relaxed.
Here’s the really other interesting concept. Nothing in the world has changed. We still got shutdowns, we still got this, we still got that, this virus is still big in the news, but you’re feeling different. You’re not so tense. You’re not so anxious. Your body’s more relaxed. That’s where the power comes in because in these times… So the first tip is acknowledge how you’re feeling. The second thing is, how long do you want to feel that way?
The other technique is the tapping technique. If you do this, I’m sorry, I’m taking this whole thing serious, wash your hands before you do it. I know people would be thinking, “Oh, come on,” but I’m taking it serious and I wash my hands. If you’re tapping, tapping on pressure points like this, again, another really strange technique, can relax the body.
My great friends, Steve Wells and Dr. David Lake, who pioneered a lot of this in Australia, their website is eftdownunder.com and they’ve got lots of resources there around this tapping technique. Or you can Google tapping technique or simple energy techniques and you’ll see lots of videos on YouTube that go through these pressure points. You can also do the fingers on the outside of the finger at the base of the fingernail.
When we’re feeling worked up and overwhelmed, the first thing is it’s okay to be feeling that way. Acknowledge that. The second thing is how long do you want to feel that way? Because we have a responsibility, I’ve been talking about this way before we heard about coronavirus.
There’s this concept of emotional contagion. If you are immersing in negativity and you’re always consuming and using – what’s this and what’s going on and on, now, sure, you’ve got to know what’s going on and I dived right into it in the early stages. But then you’ve got to pull back because if you’re focusing on that stuff 24/7, you’re not going to be feeling good and we have a responsibility. We don’t want to participate in this psychological pneumonia and I say, when you’re surrounded by negativity, it’s just like a virus. You’d catch that.
By the way, not just negativity, positivity. When you’re around positive people, you know what? You walk away feeling much better.
So we catch that. So we have a responsibility to manage our own state. I really believe that that’s important.
View Part 1 of the series here:
https://humanconnections.com.au/blog/your-emotions-are-friendly-messengers/