Stop, drop and roll

Remember being in grammar school and being taught “STOP. DROP. and ROLL.”? This was a safety technique taught to us in the case of our clothes catching on fire. It calls for us to stop (basically don’t panic), drop to the ground, and roll so that the fire will go out. While this is a great safety tip, we hopefully don’t need to use it often, or at all. After my journal prompt post, friends and I were discussing the childhood concerns question. Quick sand was certainly a big concern, but so was catching on fire! We think it goes back to having ‘stop, drop and roll’ drilled into our minds as children.

So while we hopefully aren’t catching on fire often, I thought how great this advice applies to other situations. Whenever we are trying to make a decision, or are in an emotional charged situation. This advice can certainly help!

By the way, if the DMX song isn’t already going through your head… well. You’re welcome. 😉 Okay, let’s get into today’s post:

Stop

Recently one of my family members, who I admire and aspire to be more like one day, posted on her IG story a simple phrase; which helped her kiddos calm down. The phrase being: “Be silent. Be still.” The particular evening I saw this, I was having trouble sleeping, and started repeating it to myself. Almost in a lullaby fashion, I fell asleep quickly and had a restful sleep! The next time you can’t sleep, are overthinking something, or maybe you’ve had too much to drink. Remember, “STOP.” In almost any situation you no longer want to be in or even if its just your own thoughts making you uncomfortable, literally stopping is the answer! If you are with another person or out with friends, of course being polite and excusing yourself would still be the right thing to do. We aren’t trying to start a series of Irish Goodbyes on this blog.

As simple as this is to just STOP what we are doing, especially when we aren’t enjoying it. Think about all the times you’ve tried to push through finishing an unpleasant meal, or kept going even if you were in pain. Or maybe to be polite to another you stayed on the phone much longer than you wanted to. It’s amazing how just stopping what you are doing when you don’t like it will empower you. It’s an honoring of your own thoughts and feelings that tells your self, “I hear you.”

*Please note that there are times when we do need to keep going and overcome something to reach our goals, but for the most part our little inner gut feeling will be able to tell us the difference.*

Drop

So, you may be asking yourself, “alright rose, yup all well and good, I stopped, and now what?!” The next thing to do is to drop (don’t literally drop anything please), but drop the situation, the topic, the thought from your mind. Meaning, if you were in a heated argument – you’ve already stopped the argument and excused yourself. Now, drop it all together, don’t go back into the situation and re-start it. It’s time to drop the topic, communicate to the other person if this is mid-conversation or argument. If this is simply the thoughts in your mind, it might be harder, but drop it. Start thinking about ANYTHING else. Sometimes when I realize I’m ruminating on a topic and its beyond the point of being helpful, I’ll watching one of those ’15 interesting facts in 15 minutes’ on YouTube. They are a plenty and typically at least one of the facts is interesting enough to do further research.

Side note: did you know lemon juice was used in invisible ink?!

This can greatly help in gaining perspective. It obviously doesn’t take away the problem or issue at hand forever, but it does let your mind rest and think about something completely unrelated for awhile. In fact, I’ve often found when researching these facts, the answer to my other problem randomly pops up in my mind. Or whatever was frustrating me suddenly makes sense. Otherwise, your intuition may now have the chance to kick-in and guide you vs mulling over and over the issue.

Roll

Alright folks, I realize that this could mean a few things to a few different people. However, to this day I’ve proudly remained drug free. Instead, the interpretation of roll which I’m referring to is moving the body. Long ago, a good college friend taught me the wonder of turning over my pillow to the cooler side when I have a bad dream. It works. Therefore, to apply the roll concept here, get up, roll your shoulders, roll your hips. Roll over if you aren’t interested in getting out of bed. Roll down a hill, or get in the car and roll down the street. Maybe go to your favorite drive through and roll down the window. Either way, MOVE.

Back when we worked in offices, before an important meeting or one-to-one with the boss-man, I’d sneak away to the rest room, do some deep breathing (as long as the air was safe) and then shake my body. Starting with rolling my ankles and wrists, making circles with my knees and then hips, rolling my head around and releasing any tension from my neck and shoulders. And then I’d even roll my eyes and do some eye yoga (which is apparently a real thing). This movement and breath kept my thoughts and voice calm.

Try it – next time you feel any sort of icky, roll whatever part of the body you can in the moment (don’t roll your eyes mid conversation please); see how it makes you feel!