26 | 8 Daily Practices to Cultivate Peace During Hard Times for HSPs and Introverts

Discover practical daily habits to foster emotional resilience and inner peace, tailored specifically for highly sensitive people (HSPs) and introverts. In this episode, we explore the importance of consistent self-care routines to manage emotions and reduce stress effectively. 

Whether you're dealing with overwhelming emotions or seeking to build a more peaceful daily routine, this episode offers practical tips to help HSPs and introverts thrive in challenging times.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When it comes to managing your emotions well, building that emotional resilience, when it comes to reducing your stress, you know, cultivating a peaceful environment in your home, in your heart, in your mind. This is a daily thing, right? We have to make sure that we are taking time every single day, especially as highly sensitive and introverted women, to work on this and to focus on that, because when we don't right, we begin to feel a loss of that peace and things feel chaotic and things feel out of control and we don't really understand like what's going on. Usually it is because we don't have things in place that are allowing us to daily practice what we need to support ourselves and our emotions and our stress levels like moving forward. So today I want to talk to you about some practical daily things that you can do. They're going to help you with all of that. Are you looking to manage your emotions and calm your mind so that you don't feel overwhelmed by all the hard times going on right now? Would you like to find true rest and peace in God and a little joy in your weariness? What about understanding why you feel things so deeply, especially when you're stressed? If so, you're in the right place. Welcome to the Peace-Filled Mind podcast, your go-to resource for practical tips, real talk and encouragement. I'm your host, latoya Edwards, life and mindset coach and, most of all, a woman who's walked through pain and suffering just like you. No matter what you're currently facing in life or how you've dealt with things in the past, I'm here to help you find peace, joy and hope again. Pop in those earbuds and let's get to it.

Speaker 1: 1:38

When I first started working on my emotions building emotion, resilience and trying to be really intentional about reducing my stress because life is insane I noticed a couple of things. I noticed that I would have times where, no matter what was going on, I felt great, right, I didn't overreact, I didn't blow up, I didn't fall into like a pit of deep despair or anything like that. But then I also had times when every little thing set me over the edge. I mean, like my kid ate, the last nectarine from the refrigerator would send me spiraling out of control for some, like a really weird reason. And as I started thinking about it and reflecting on it and talking with my therapist about it, I realized that in those times that I felt like I was on it and I was able to manage with things. Well, I was doing things consistently to manage my emotions, to lower my stress. Those were the times when I was getting enough sleep, I was moving my body every day, I was reading or painting, or I was taking time out for myself every day. Right, I had I was reading or painting, or I was taking time out for myself, and so I was able to kind of manage well. And then the times when I was losing my mind, it felt like, were those times when some or all of those habits, kind of, had fallen by the wayside.

Speaker 1: 3:08

And so this is why I tell you that having daily things in place is the best thing that you can do when you are trying to build that emotional resilience, when you're trying to lower your stress. It can't just be oh, I'm having a stressful moment, now I'm going to pull out those tools. No, it has to be something that you are working on day in and day out, so it kind of becomes second nature to you. Okay, so we're going to start really quick with just I want to talk to my highly sensitive people and my introverts for just a second, all right, so we know this, like we're not new to this as a highly sensitive person or an introverted person, like we tend to be more sensitive emotionally to everything. I mean, some of us are just sensitive to all the things all of the time. Right, we're more sensitive to all the things. Like. This is me. I am super sensitive to emotions mine, yours, like, the people around me, like the environment in a room sound, sensitive, light sensitive. Like I just can't handle a lot of stimulus coming at me all at once and this is just the way I'm made. Right, this is the way my brain works, it's what my body processes things and there's nothing wrong with it. But you want to be aware of this, right, be aware of the fact that, as a highly sensitive and introverted person, you are going to have probably more emotional responses and higher stress levels in certain situations than someone who's not.

Speaker 1: 4:27

This is also why we need solitude. As an introvert, you need to have downtime, you need to have time to rest. You need to have time where you are left alone in a dark room with no sound and no noise and no people and nothing. Right, you've got to have that time to rest and to recharge. Okay, because when you don't right, you don't handle things well, right, this is why, you know, we are so deeply affected by stress and we're so easily to dip into overwhelm. We've got to take better care of ourselves. You've got to be aware what your triggers are. You've got to, you know, love on yourself and give yourself the support that you need. All right.

Speaker 1: 5:09

So, instead of being, oh, I'm too sensitive right, we hear that a lot right Now you're so sensitive, right? Don't look at that as a negative thing, as something to ignore or something to kind of turn off, because I'm going to tell you you cannot, right, embrace that, because that's how God made you. Right, but nurture yourself and love on yourself and support yourself because of those traits, all right. And if you wanna know more about sensitivity and how that works with emotional resilience, right, it's all in the Peaceful Mind course, so go ahead and go check that out, all right. So what are some daily practices that you can do that are gonna help you have, right, that inner can do, that are going to help you have that inner peace, that peaceful mind that we all are looking for. So I'm just going to give you a few ideas. This is not an exhaustive list. This is just something to get you kind of started thinking for your own thing.

Speaker 1: 5:55

So the first thing I want to share with you is having a morning ritual, a morning routine, something that's going to be really grounding to help you start your day, and there's a whole lot of research out there about grounding. Um, it just, it helps you stay calm, reduce stress. It's really a great thing, um, as we'll talk about that in the course too. So what you can do is pick some kind of extra grounding exercise to do. All right, um, and what it's going to do. It's going to help, like, set a calm tone for your day, and it's going to give you time to have some peace, to have some calmness before any other stressors can get at you, because sometimes what happens is we don't even have a chance to get into like a peaceful, serene, calm mindset before all of the stress of the day hits us, and so we're not really setting ourselves up in a great way to cope with what's coming.

Speaker 1: 6:46

So some ideas that you can do you can do deep breathing. I have a whole episode about breath prayers, but I talk about different deep breathing exercises that you could do in there. That is one of my favorite. Prayer is great for that. Meditation is a great way to ground yourself. Going outside and sticking your feet, your bare foot, on the ground right is a great way to just ground yourself and get ready for the day. So what I like to do is I like to get up in the morning and I like to try to get some sun on my face right away helps my brain register that it's time to get up and get going. But I might just go stand outside If I can't stand outside, or I stand in front of a window and I will just close my eyes and I will just spend a couple of minutes doing some deep breathing, right, doing some of my deep breathing exercises. Bonus points if I can be barefoot when I'm outside. But I just do that, um, and I might have like a quick chat with God and that really helps me have that foundation of calm and peace. Um, before I have to go, tackle everything that I need to do for the day. All right. Tip number two it's going to be a really big surprise to you guys you ready Journaling.

Speaker 1: 7:56

Yes, incorporate daily journaling into your routines to help you process your emotions and your thoughts. All right, when you do this, you are giving yourself an outlet for your emotions, and when you have, like, a good, healthy outlet for your emotions, it's going to reduce the kind of emotional and mental clutter that's in your heart and in your mind and that will lower your stress. Okay, so here is something that I want you to do specifically for my HSPs and my introverts. When I talk about journaling, right, there's all kinds of things you can do, but I want you specifically to focus on your triggers, right, and your emotions and your thoughts. So, like, what kind of emotions did I notice today? What did that feel like in my body? What kind of thoughts did I have as I was going throughout my day? How did I respond to those things? Okay, being aware of what you are experiencing, of the way it feels in your body, is going to help you identify those things faster in the future.

Speaker 1: 9:03

All right, it's so important that you can actually label and identify what you're feeling. There are so many people in this world that would be in a much better place if they could just say I feel hurt, I feel betrayed, I feel sad, I feel rejected, right, if you just label that thing, it's really helpful and then you can begin to notice, well, anytime that I feel rejected. This is what it feels like in my body. So you know what your triggers are. You know how to recognize that in your body, which will then clue you to when you need to go take some time to go calm yourself down, right, you can go back to those grounding exercises if you need to. You need to go take some time to go calm yourself down, right, you can go back to those grounding exercises if you need to.

Speaker 1: 9:41

Number three move your body. Okay, and I'm not talking about, you know, a full out, 45 minute hit routine, like, if that's your jam, that's your jam. But just move your body, right. Gentle movement is always great. Like, I like to walk, I like to go outside and just go for a walk outside and be in nature, fresh air, all the things, seeing the animals Stretching is a great thing too. Just some way to get your body moving. It's going to help you release the tension that you're storing in your body and just kind of connect. Help you be more mindful, right. Help you be present, fully present, in your body, in your mind, right In the present moment, all right. So I don't know, 15, 20 minutes a day, right Is great. And listen, do what you can. Okay, don't beat yourself up If you say you're going to do something and you only managed to do it three days out of five, like, whatever you can do, do. And if you can't do it all at once, it's fine to break it up throughout your day, okay, so some other things that you can do that are going to help you build your emotional resilience muscles Really quick.

Speaker 1: 10:43

I want to give you a couple of things here, because I've talked about this a lot, but a regular digital detox. So I know that we are alive and well in the land of all things tech, but there's a lot of sensory information coming from devices and screens and all the things. There's a lot of emotional and mental stimuli coming from social media. Right, I mean, I'm not on it a bunch, but like I have been on it before and I'm like, why am I suddenly so angry? It's because, like, I'm scrolling through all of the foolishness that's popping up on social media. So give yourself time and I'm going to suggest every single day where you turn off the screens and you disconnect from all of that noise and give yourself time and space to decompress. Okay. So set some good boundaries with your technology there For me I have. I know that like at least an hour and a half before I'm going to go to sleep I have to be off all screens and all of that so that my mind can kind of calm down, so I can fall asleep. So figure out what those boundaries are for yourself. Stick to them.

Speaker 1: 11:46

Number two I want you to get outside. Get some green time. Ok, connect with nature, even if it's just a few minutes a day, right, even if all you do is go stand in your backyard. Get outside. Nature is so calming, right. It helps you to reset your nervous system. There's like all the fresh air. It's just a wonderful place to go to calm down. So get outside, touch grass right. Breathe fresh air, get the sun, you know, on your face, and you can tie this into all kinds of things. Right, I will listen to podcasts, I will listen to audiobooks, I might listen to my Bible, I might go and pray Sometimes it's my exercise for the day just to go out in nature and walk. So figure out where you can make that happen during your day. Get all the green time you can.

Speaker 1: 12:29

And I also want you to do your best to be intentional about having silence and solitude every day. Now I know you're probably looking at me like say what I know, listen, single mom of four, I get it. Say what I know, listen, single mom of four, I get it. Quiet is a rarity around here, but I do try to find, even if it's just five or 10 minutes a day, that I can go somewhere and really be quiet and I can have some peace and quiet, even if I have to go sit in my car all by myself, like I try to find it. But do this for yourself. It's going to give your mind time to rest.

Speaker 1: 13:01

Okay, as HSPs and introverts like, resting and recharging is key to reducing your overwhelm and reducing your stress. So if you can find a special place in your home that can kind of be where you go to be, you know, for peace and quiet, do that. If you have to leave, go get it, but try to make that a regular part. Quiet do that. If you have to leave, go get it, but try to make that a regular part of your day, several times a day if you can, because it's really going to help you find that peace and find that calm so that you can kind of go back and re-engage with the other things you have to do in your life.

Speaker 1: 13:34

So I want to kind of wrap up some time here with just some spiritual practice that you can do, all right. So remember, when I talk to you about spiritual growth or spiritual practices, I'm not saying to you that if you want to feel better, or that the answer to all your problems, right, is this faith thing. Right, we're not spiritual bypassing around here, right, but there are things that we can do that help us to feel more connected with God, to engage with his word, to hear from him, that are really beneficial when it comes to working on your emotional wellness and resilience. So, number one Lectio Divina. It is my favorite thing right now.

Speaker 1: 14:12

Okay, and if you don't know how to do Lectio Divina, check the show notes here, because I have a podcast where I walk you through all of it. You can go and learn it. It's really easy, it's really simple and you can like make it work for whatever your schedule is. I love it, right, because what it does is it helps you to slow down and focus on, like just something really simple. You're focusing on one word or one phrase or one idea from God's word which is going to allow you to have a deeper connection right To God through prayer, through scripture, which is always going to help you find peace, find strength and chill out a little bit.

Speaker 1: 14:54

Okay, prayer, of course, and reflection is also great as well, right? So in your day, with some kind of prayer and reflection, you know, you can look back over your day and find things that you're grateful for. You can do like what I call evening examine not what I call, but what's called evening examine where you are looking back and trying to reflect on your day to see where you experienced God's presence. But doing that, it's a great way to release the day stress, okay, and it's going to give you like a sense of closure and peace before you go to bed. So I don't know about you, but my mind is go, go, go, go, go, go, go all of the time, and I have found that when I hop off the screens right before bedtime and I've had some movement in my day and I've gotten outside, that when I can take even just five minutes to just sit and be quiet and just reflect on my day, that my brain will turn off and let me get a good night's sleep. All right. So those are my thoughts.

Speaker 1: 15:50

I want to encourage you to start with one or two of the things I've listed here as a way to, like, build those daily practices into your routine and, right, add more or try new things. Like, if I said something here that doesn't work for you, pitch it and try something else All right, but do that because you've got to give yourself right, got to take care of yourself, right. That's part of having self-compassion. It's part of honoring right your unique needs that you have as an HSP and an introvert. So do that to take care of yourself. But always, always, start small. So pick one or two things, try them out, make changes if you need to, before you add on something else. I hope you were blessed and encouraged by today's episode. I would love to hear from you. The best way to do that is to leave a five-star rating and review on your podcast player, sharing what you loved or found helpful about today's episode. This helps other women find the show and it's a huge blessing to me. Thank you so much for joining me today.