The stress and strain of constantly being connected can sometimes take your life -- and your well-being -- off course. GPS For The Soul can help you find your way back to balance.
GPS Guides are our way of showing you what has relieved others' stress in the hopes that you will be able to identify solutions that work for you. We all have de-stressing "secret weapons" that we pull out in times of tension or anxiety, whether they be photos that relax us or make us smile, songs that bring us back to our heart, quotes or poems that create a feeling of harmony, or meditative exercises that help us find a sense of silence and calm. We encourage you to look at the GPS Guide below, visit our other GPS Guides here, and share with us your own personal tips for finding peace, balance and tranquility.
In her GPS Guide, Cheryl Kain shares three tools for de-stressing. Find her techniques and the inspiration photos that keep her calm below.
1. Singing
Whether it’s in the shower, the car or alone in the house, singing releases emotions from the emotional and spiritual house in the soul, bypassing the intellect and “should’s”. It’s the quickest way I know to uplift my heart and thoughts. There is something deeply satisfying and comforting to feel and hear your voice coming through the body, up and out from deep within. If not a song, then any kind of sound can and will change and move the energy -- a laugh, a moan, a holler! Just use your voice and discover its power to move mountains inside you.
2. Simple Yoga
When I am overloaded by life, I like to get my little lavender sachet (anything fragrant will do -- lemon slice, sprig of mint), put a cool compress on my forehead, and do “legs up the wall” yoga pose. Even for 5 minutes, the inversion relaxes my mind enough to restore me and shortcut my craving for sugar in the mid-afternoon.
3. Meditation
Sitting comfortably, I imagine myself lying down on a warm summer day at the beach, inhaling sounds of surf and seagulls, scent of salt and coconut, my body melting into the soft sand. I listen to the sound of my breath rising and falling. If thoughts appear (“I have work to do!” “I forgot to buy snacks for the kids!”), I let the thought be a cloud, drifting through and passing by, allowing me to return to my calming reverie.
Cheryl Kain's GPS Guide
Cheryl Kain is a writer and musician living on Cape Cod who has interviewed yoga legend Rod Stryker, Positive Psychology icon Tal Ben-Shahar, and Broadway singer Linda Eder. Good Morning America featured Cheryl for how yoga changed her health and life. Her book, Letters to My Mama: An Adopted Daughter’s Creative Journey Through the First Year of Grief is available at TheBookPatch.com as well as on NOOK and Kindle. A singer/songwriter and pianist, she sang the national anthem at Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium, and teaches private voice & piano at her studio and via Skype. www.cherylkainwrites.com.
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