It’s strange how a place can feel like a whirlwind and still expect you to stand still.
This semester, I’ve had to take a lot to take breaks from the Chico energy because it can really feel like it never stops pushing. I found myself home after especially chaotic weekends, and getting fed up with things that wouldn’t normally push me over the edge.Â
The more I stepped away, the more I realized how chaotic this town actually is. I started to think of it like a hurricane. Swirling constantly at speeds I couldn’t keep up with, either caught up in the motion or observing it, horrified. Specifically in the spring semester, I know we can all relate to this in one way or another. Whether it’s partying, your major, your humiliationship, or any other struggles, It’s hard for them not to feel all consuming in this town. In order to survive, I’ve had to come up with ways to ground myself, and remind myself that life is so much bigger than this town. After all, Chico is literally only 35 square miles of the entire planet Earth.
Dance yourself clean
What a lot of people don’t realize, is that stress is physical energy stored inside your body. In order to release and process stress, your body needs to move. Like it actually needs to move. for you, this could be a chill walk a full-blown workout, or in my case- dancing your f****** ass off. Taylor Swift had a point when she told us to shake it off.
As well as stress in the body, thoughts that sit inside your head tend to fester and spiral down deeper into themselves until you don’t even know what is assumption versus what is fact. So, Similarly to the fact that you need to move, you also need to express yourself in any means possible. I love writing or stretching when my heads a complete mess, because saying or processing things outside of your body is in my opinion the best way to see them for what they are.Â
A ritual for me and my best friend as well as tons of girls our age is going on drives and blasting music that really feeds whatever energy were stuck in that day. Drive up the highway and vent about the same thing for as long as you can until you’ve even started to untangle that knot on your head.
In order to feel grounded on the physical plane, our bodies need a certain amount connection to the planet. After all, our bodies are ruled by forces like gravity and energy.
Just standing on the grass for a few minutes in the morning every day and just experiencing the climate and the sunlight can make a huge difference in how your body responds to stress. Another small meditative practice its hard to avoid and nice to be aware of is to go outside and see the sun in the morning, then at night, experience dusk. This way, your body cycles and circadian rhythm will begin to sync with actual nature, improving sleep, and helping with the stress induced state of fight or flight.Â
the point
So run, stretch, bike, cry, talk. Live your actual life and not the agenda of our silly little college town.Â
Absolutely none of this is to say that you should completely detach from everything around you.
It absolutely is to say though, that we must try to stay so grounded in ourselves, that the absence or fluctuation of the things around us cant shake us.Â
You are your consciousness. You are your thoughts. Nothing else that’s being projected on you from the outside world defines, or is, who you are. It sounds so much easier said than done, but if you’re consistently reminding yourself of how much bigger life is, these things will eventually feel smaller because they really are.
