Exercises That Make You Feel Better

Many people suffering from burnout or stress tell me that they have a difficult time feeling good in their bodies. They get the impulse to go 'inside their thoughts' on a regular basis. This activity might help you regain your confidence. Because you can feel your desires and limitations in your body, it's quite useful.

Sit with both feet on the floor in a comfortable posture. Keep your hands on your legs and your chin slightly down, with your eyes closed if possible.

See if you can feel the chair you're sitting on right now. Can you feel the backrest and can you feel the seat? Does the seat feel hard or soft? Feel your legs on the chair and your feet on the floor. Do you sink deep into the seat, do you feel a little bouncing out of it, or does it feel more like you're floating above the seat?

Are you trying really hard to do your best?

Are you trying really hard to relax and do the exercise right? You guessed it: the effect is counterproductive. Do you know this? Do your best? That's not so crazy. In school and in society we learn to do our best, pay attention and work hard. That doesn't work with feeling. 'Tell me what to do', I can already hear you say. But you don't 'do' feel.

You don't have to relax

How does it work? It starts with; you don't have to relax. You don't have to be calm. Feeling also means feeling tension or unrest in your body. If you're trying to relax and be calm all the time, you're dealing with a need, not a feeling. You are then working hard not to let what you really feel be there.

Feeling regulates itself

Feelings look after themselves. Only, we don't always dare to rely on it, or we haven't learned it. If a tiny child falls and is told, "You don't have to weep, nothing is wrong," the child may get upset. Then it learns from a young age that sobbing is not a nice thing. It is given no room and is stored as tension in the body. If, on the other hand, you take a young kid on your lap and acknowledge that it is shocked, in pain, and weeping, and you support it, the situation will pass quickly. This should go without saying. One of the tasks of sensation is to aid in the processing of something shocking. Feeling that supports you and gives you space undulates for a moment, then subsides, and comes into balance.

Let your thoughts go and start feeling

This is the principle of the exercise. You don't do anything at all, except really connect with your feelings. The rest will take care of itself. You can't go wrong, because every feeling is right. Are you completely in your head and does your body feel far away? That's okay, for now, that's what there is. You may feel restlessness in your chest. It may sound crazy but explore that turmoil. Is it big, small, does it make a movement? It doesn't have to go. You may feel something in your stomach, a knot or a stone, a stuffy feeling. You might run into a whole bunch of not-so-nice feelings. It is important that your head does not play with your feeling: 'Why am I feeling this, oh it's because of…'. Let those thoughts go and go back to the feeling.

After about ten minutes you will notice that you are more in touch with yourself. It may be that you feel calmer and that new space has arisen. Without having 'done' anything, you feel more comfortable in your own skin!