How to step away from being “in your head”

I’m in a busy season.  Are you, too?  I spend most of my day using my front-brain to answer questions and make decisions and change gears when things aren’t working.  I rely on my habit-brain to get me through the daily routines of remembering to put on my watch and plug things in and lock the doors at night.  Sometimes I’m so brain-busy, that I don’t realize my body is thirsty or hungry or headachy until I sit down for a breather.  In other words, I spend much of my day “in my head”. 

I know I’ve had a particularly busy day when even my emotions get filtered through my head.  On the car ride home, I may find myself thinking about how I reacted to a situation.  I might reflect how I responded to someone’s words, or notice how I handled (or didn’t handle) an incident.  Sound familiar?  Spending most of the day “in your head” might be efficient for work and routines, but it is not sufficient when it comes to our emotional health.  

To stay healthy and whole (especially when life is busy), we need to get our bodies involved.  What does our emotional health look like when we step out of our heads and into our body?   Instead of over-thinking how we reacted, we notice where we felt the reaction in our body.  Instead of over-reflecting on how we responded, we are aware of how our body responded.  In other words, our emotional health becomes a whole body experience.   

When you have time for a breather, meditation is a game-changing way to reconnect with your body.  It doesn’t take long, and