“If right now will get troublesome, keep in mind the odor of espresso, the way in which daylight bounces off a window, the sound of your favourite individual’s snort, the sensation when a track you like comes on, the colour of the sky at nightfall, and that we’re right here to handle one another.” ~Nanea Hoffman
The seashore breeze brushed in opposition to my pores and skin. I felt the heat from the solar, and I may hear the crashing waves and wild shrieking laughter of my toddlers.
I appeared down at my excellent ten-month-old together with his cute chubby cheeks, loud night breathing softly in my arms. My chest ached as if my coronary heart bodily damage from the quantity of affection I felt towards my kids in that second, and my eyes shimmered with tears on the power of that love. “This was a glimmer,” I believed.
Many individuals are acquainted with the concept of triggers. Triggers are any eventualities or stimuli that fire up destructive feelings, that are often rooted in a previous damage or trauma.
Much less acquainted to most individuals is the idea of glimmers. Glimmers are the other of triggers. They’re little moments that spark calm and connection. The thought was initially launched by Deb Dana, who’s a distinguished determine within the software of Polyvagal Principle, which is a scientific framework for understanding the nervous system.
We’re much less inclined to search for glimmers than triggers, and the reason being evolutionary.
Up to now, our caveperson brains benefited extra from remembering the time we ate poison berries or the locations that hungry lions lurked than from savoring an attractive sundown. However most of us are shopping for our groceries at farmers’ markets and grocery shops now—and don’t have to fret about lions, so we are able to apply altering our brains.
There’s an thought in psychology that “what we water will develop” in reference to what ideas we attend to. The extra we apply noticing the positives, the extra naturally our brains will make and strengthen these pathways.
I’m a psychological well being therapist, and I realized about glimmers by way of a seamless training course. On the time, I used to be fighting my very own nervousness. I had emotions of guilt present up as I guided my purchasers by way of their psychological well being challenges whereas nonetheless studying how one can handle my very own.
When I’ve a second to take perspective, although, I can present myself grace as a mother of a three-year-old, a two-year-old, and a ten-month-old, who occurred to be a miraculous little shock.
With three small people, two canines, and a fish, life is loud, messy, chaotic, and exquisite. Balancing work, home chores, and the wants of others can really feel exhausting and overwhelming.
I don’t have hours to do all of the self-care actions that you’re “speculated to” do in a day—journal, train, meditate. However glimmers? They match into my life.
I really like Harry Potter, fantasy, and magic. I like to take a look at glimmers as greater than calm and connection and extra like sparkly little moments in our strange life. Glimmers will be sensory—an attractive sundown, a heat breeze, the sparkle of a candle, the scent of lavender, or the primary sip of a extremely scrumptious espresso.
They are often inside—a deep exhale, a comforting reminiscence, a second of self-compassion, or being happy with an accomplishment.
They could be a social connection—a protracted hug out of your accomplice, a rambling story out of your three-year-old, or listening to your two-year-old inform his sister, “I really like you, Evy.”
The thought of glimmers jogs my memory a little bit of the Danish idea of hygge. Hygge’s closest English translation is an idea of coziness and contentment. I really like the concept of connecting these two concepts as a result of it might appear to me that partaking in hygge practices would set you as much as have much more glimmers.
Creating extra hygge in your life would come with no matter feels cozy for you. For me, it’s huge comfortable blankets, candlelight, a heat drink, and clothes with the softest materials. The values behind hygge are a way of presence, slowness, and connection. Hygge is about setting an atmosphere to ask glimmers in.
Lately, I accumulate glimmers like fireflies in a jar. They’re nothing fancy, however they’re tiny moments that reassure me that I’m okay. They carry me residence inside my very own physique. There’s magic within the strange, in any case. You simply should search for it.
About Katie Landrum
Katie is a habits analyst and psychological well being counselor within the Central Florida space. Her final ardour is girls’s psychological well being. She additionally makes a speciality of treating nervousness, melancholy, perinatal points, and ADHD. Katie’s counseling method emphasizes self-compassion, strengths over pathology, and a values-focused perspective with a view to transfer purchasers towards a wealthy, significant life. In her private life, she is the proud mom of three small, great kiddos. Study extra about Katie.
