? However, even after the darkest nights, morning comes when you have to get up, send your children to school, and go to work. After all, life doesn’t stop. How to make the day after night shelling as comfortable as possible and find the strength to work and solve current problems? Tells Olga Koptieva, a methodologist for the Unbreakable Mom program from the Masha Foundation.
Recently, the shelling has intensified, and there is less time and space to recover from sleepless, nervous nights. Therefore, it is extremely important to have effective and simple exercises in mind for calming and reminding yourself: I am here, I am alive. Practice doing these practices on your own, with your loved ones, and with your children. So that they are so well imprinted in the memory that they are remembered at the moment when they are needed.
“In moments of great stress, it is important not to look for complex techniques—we need something simple, understandable, something that can be done right here and now,” says Olga Koptieva, methodologist of the psycho-emotional stabilization program for women and their children affected by the war. “These exercises will help stabilize your breathing, regain a sense of control, and calm your body and nervous system.”
Exercise # 1. Breath
This simple exercise will help you stabilize and calm your nervous system and get back to feeling your body. When you calm down, you will be able to direct your thoughts to managing day-to-day tasks.
How to do it:
Exercise number # 2. Here and now
This exercise also works on grounding. It will help you remember that you are here and now.
How to do it:
– Where am I now?
– What do I see around me?
– What am I doing?
– What am I thinking about?
Example:
I am in the room now. I am sitting in a chair. I am looking out of the window. I am breathing.
I am safe. I am alive.
Just observe without judgment.
Return to life carefully, with care for yourself.
“And finally, do something very simple and pleasant for yourself: Make a cup of fragrant tea or coffee. Take small sips of a drink that you like and enjoy,” advises Olha Koptieva, a psychologist at the Masha Foundation.
About the project:
The Unbreakable Mom psycho-emotional stabilization program is specially designed by specialists in psychology and post-traumatic disorders for women and their children affected by war. This is an online and offline camp where psychologists, art therapists, and body psychologists work with participants of the project.
