Healthy Tips for Disarming Difficult Situations
We all face difficulties in life, as this is part of the human condition. Whether it’s engaging in the same old argument you’ve had before, being inundated by an onslaught of negativity and doomsday predictions or feeling like a dark cloud follows you everywhere you turn, sometimes life can seem heavy and burdensome. When we feel stuck or hopeless, the lessons become buried under confusion and obscurity. However, life presents opportunities for us to learn from such problems. Keep reading for tips that can help you disarm difficult situations.
Adopt neutrality
This first tip may be the hardest of all, yet one of the most important to access. If you are experiencing problems and challenges, extreme frustration, overwhelm, fear, numbness or racing thoughts, it may seem this is all life has to offer.
However, beyond or beneath these immediate reactions there lies a place of neutrality. To move from chaos to evenhandedness, neither being swayed one way or another, you may first remind yourself the immediate situation is temporary and specific, even though it may not seem that way.
Take a time out and switch the narrative by changing your physical and/or mental state.
- A walk outdoors, being in water, or time spent in deep breathing may work wonders.
- Grounding into the earth may help balance your energies. Learn more in this ACEP blog.
- Music and movement may help invite a balanced view.
- Recalling a gentler time, even using olfactory cues, like smelling your favorite fragrance, may kickstart your brain to more balanced states.
If you can’t feel neutral, just knowing that neutrality exists may open the door to a change in perspective. You’ve been neutral before, and you will be once again.
Disengage from drama
High intensity drama seems to be everywhere: on social media, in politics, the press, and personal relationships. Though conflict and division are compelling ways to draw in attention, extended drama does not lead to stability, collaboration, or nuanced communication, which is often necessary to build long term viable solutions.
It takes concerted effort to disengage from the fight, flight, freeze reaction of being around high jinks and hysteria. Try these strategies to disengage from drama:
- Remember the strongest energy commands the space, be it a brawl, inflammatory words, or even positive things like an orchestra performance or a delightful sunset.
- Try to match the prevailing drama with a stronger healthier energy, or if that is not possible, disengage as much as possible from the drama. You can still take in the message but not necessarily the method or the messenger.
- Change the way you communicate: Read material instead of watching and listening to control the pace of information. Move away from those who are currently agitated so you can find peace. Engage in discernment and logical analysis to find your truth. Listen with your heart for direction, examine your values to see what is a match and what is not.
Be still in your awareness
It takes concerted effort to still the mind, finding quiet amidst the noise. The more you carve out time to practice detached awareness, the easier it will be to reign in the mind when things around you are in motion. Consciousness is grander than you may realize.
If you can find a way to expand your view, being simultaneously engaged in the immediate experience and at a distance from it, you may gain perspective, find your center, tap into wisdom, and have clarity of thought. Three suggestions may help you achieve balanced awareness.
Engage with energy psychology practices
There are various energy psychology and energy healing practices to help you gain stability, balance, and equanimity with mind, body and spirit. If you already know some energy practices, take time for yourself and simply do it. Often it only takes a few minutes to experience a shift in your current state.
If you’re new to energy practices, or want to expand your options for assistance, check out methods which can enhance your wellbeing:
Learn and follow along with a variety of stand-alone techniques on video, with downloadable instructions, all found on one website, like the soothing
butterfly hug, found on the ACEP website under
Resources for Resilience. You can also read this
ACEP blog for more ideas about self-care and energy practices.
See solutions manifesting gently and effortlessly
No matter which approaches you adopt, start off with a positive outlook, intention, or affirmation to set the stage for what you want. Otherwise, you risk creating more of the same or worsening effects. Try these techniques to see your solutions manifesting:
- Visualize, speak aloud or silently in your mind, feel in your body, or use other approaches to bring alive optimal solutions.
- See, feel or hear the desired outcome rushing to joyously greet you, manifesting peacefulness, neutrality or other goals both gently and effortlessly.
- Make up your own script, image or affirmation for each situation you encounter.
If there is time, speak your intention into a recording device, and play it back when you are relaxed, so it sinks into your receptive mind and body.
If you have trouble reaching goals, consider reading this blog
on clearing blocks using energy practices, for helpful tips and ideas.
Collaborate with unexpected places, people, sources
Once you commit to a path of possibility, unexpected people, places, situations, and sources may appear with suggestions or support of your goals. Maybe they were there all along, but now the timing is ripe for you to notice and access them.
It is said that every problem is created with the solution already inside. Let others and the outer world take care of you in your desire to find what you seek. Read more about boosting your
kindness quotient in this ACEP blog. If it is difficult to muster positive thoughts,
this ACEP blog about clearing the shadow of gratitude may be helpful.
Disarming difficult situations by being natural, easy, and fluid
It may not be easy to establish a vibration of heart-centered alignment even in the best of times. Upheaval and consternation are compelling forces, but you can try each time anew to establish a stance which is natural, easy, and fluid. Even when times are challenging, disarming difficult situations can be harnessed with your mind, body and spirit, which are built to reside in homeostasis. Give yourself the home team advantage by returning to your essence, the inner spark of uniqueness that is wholly your own. Find the sometimes elusive yet foundational quality of innate wellbeing.
Want to learn more? Build your skills, find community, or read more.
ACEP’s EFT online training course can give you tools for self-care and professional development with Emotional Freedom Techniques.
Communities of practice are online gatherings with ACEP members and others who have similar interests with energy psychology, skill development, and support. Find your people to achieve your goals. These communities are only open to ACEP members.
Resources for Resilience offers free online self-help videos and documents with easy-to-follow energy practices for wellbeing. Brochures are translated in many languages.
Many thanks to Dorothea Hover-Kramer, Ed D, RN, of blessed memory and ACEP cofounder, who supplied the inspiration for this blog.
Author
Lori Chortkoff Hops, PhD, DCEP is a licensed psychologist in Westlake Village, California, USA. She is certified in Comprehensive Energy Psychology and Logosynthesis and is a Reiki master. Lori is president of ACEP. Learn more about Lori at www.drlorihops.com. Lori teaches online developing intuition classes and offers personal intuition consultation.
Photo by Sunguk Kim on Unsplash
