Is your emotional reaction bigger than the initial pain of what’s just happened?? For 99.99 % of us, the answer is yes. If this resonates, keep on reading as it doesn’t have to be this way…..

Pain is unavoidable. How we respond to the pain is up to us.

We can’t control the world, but we can control how we respond to it. This is our real power.

A few years ago, when I was at my lowest moment in life and mortality was staring me in the face and had a petrifying grip on me, I didn’t feel like I had any options. Positive, powerful change seemed an impossibility.

But then I had the most profound and powerful experience of my life. I was able to look at things differently.

Being able to look at things differently changed my whole world when the external world around me hadn’t changed at all.

My perceptions had changed. I still experienced pain, but my suffering was less…….

There is a Buddhist proverb that goes a little like this:

Our perceptions, how we are perceiving the world, is what creates and dictates our own personal reality, our experience of the world. Ultimately what we’re talking about here is our stress levels, our health and wellbeing and ability to perform at our best.

My change didn’t happen overnight, in fact it took a couple of months. What did happen overnight was the starting of the process of change.

• Hope
• Proof
• Inspiration
• Time & Space
• Love (Positive energy)
• A crazy dutch man called Wim Hof 🥶
• The book Radical Remission – Surviving Cancer Against the Odds

These are the main things that helped me deal with the second arrow, and helped me change the way I look at things, and change my belief system.

What are the tools and things that help you change your perception and respond to that second arrow, the suffering?

We lead busy, stressful lives full of distraction. Every now and then we need a reminder as we get off track. That reminder is to let go, reset, rebalance and recharge, and then carry on.

These two articles are guides that I hope will help you reduce your suffering and strengthen your response to pain.

https://www.adaptandflow.co.uk/an-emotional-workplace/

https://www.adaptandflow.co.uk/perception-an-underestimated-tool-for-stress/

You choose how you respond to what’s going on in your world. You really do.

A few simple but powerful tools to get you started:

• Slow down and give yourself a little time and space and then let go of what you need to
• Be mindful of your breathing throughout the day. Slow, soft deeper nasal breathing will help you remain calm. When required, extend the exhale to stimulate your vagus nerve and parasympathetic nervous system bringing your body back towards homeostasis and rest and repair.
• Talk to yourself – Have a mantra that is easy to remember like “I am calm and in control”
• Get comfortable being uncomfortable – the only certainty is uncertainty:
  • • Cold showers
    • Fasting
    • Do one thing every day that stretches your comfort zone

I hope this post is a useful reminder for you that you have a choice. Even when it feels like you don’t have a choice, you do. We all have a choice of what we give our energy to.

If you and your team could benefit from some additional tools to help you take more control with your responses and reduce the suffering I’d love to hear from you 🥶

All the love and all the power

Damon