Mental Health Awareness Week at OES

As part of Mental Health Awareness week, regulating emotions has been identified as a key element of emotional wellbeing. OES would like to invite you to attend one of a series of three 30 minute sessions that will demonstrate how to provide your system with the conditions for improved emotional regulation.

Our capacity to regulate our emotions is directly related to the state of our nervous system

In the face of a challenge, our system shifts from a state of connection to one of defensiveness and protection. When we are triggered and/or under pressure, it’s only natural for our resilience levels to fall, making it harder for us to regulate our emotions.  

Research shows that we can regulate our emotions by connecting with our vagus nerve

Emotional dysregulation can start with a feeling in our body, such as a tightness in the chest, or a churning in the stomach. This is our body’s way, via the vagus nerve, our internal surveillance system, of letting us know that we are presented with a challenge and that we need to act to overcome the “danger” we are faced with. In the attempt to navigate our way back to safety, there is a tendency for us to lose connection to ourselves and others, making it harder to maintain a balanced emotional demeanour.

A shift in the state of our nervous system from protection, back to connection and safety, creates the possibility for change.

You are invited to experience how engaging your vagus nerve can create a shift in the way you think, how you feel, the way you behave and how you relate to yourself, others and the world, inviting in greater capacity for emotional regulation.

As choice is an important part of nervous system health and awareness, you can elect to have your camera on or off during the online sessions. Numbers are limited. Feel free to reach out to Michelle with any questions.

Calming your system in times of stress

Wednesday 11th October at 12pm. Online session

Learn tool to resource yourself in the face of a challenge and/or switch off your body’s alarm bells, once a stressor has passed.

This session will benefit you if you are

• anxious and looking for some relief

• experiencing panic attacks,

• prone to feeling agitated and impatient

• experiencing excessive worries

• prone to catastrophic thinking

• have tight muscles and a tendency to hold your breath

• feel hypervigilant and are often on edge

• having difficulty falling or staying asleep

How you can expect to feel

• calmer in your body

• a sense of relief

• less intrusive thoughts

• more grounded in your system

• more emotionally regulated

• some people may feel temporarily tired as they start to engage their vagus nerve to regulate their nervous system

Noticing and naming your feelings for emotional regulation

Thursday 12th October at 12pm. In person session Room 1.24 Pandorea

This session will invite you to be more mindful and curious in how to approach any uncomfortable sensations that accompany moments of emotional dysregulation. This could present itself as a churning in the stomach before you engage in public speaking , a flushed feeling when you are challenged by a particular situation, a build up of internal pressure when you are under the pump.

This session will benefit you if you are

• wanting to learn how to slow down and pause in the face of a stressor

• looking for a way to transform your relationship with uncomfortable feelings into meaningful information

• wanting to introduce a more mindful way to manage triggers 

How you can expect to feel

• calmer in your mind and body

• a sense of physical relief

• greater self compassion

• more confident and comfortable in your own skin

• like you have more bandwidth to take on life’s opportunities and challenges

   

Energising your system when you need a boost

Friday 13th October at 12pm. Online session

Learn tools to resource yourself and invite some energy back into your system in a calm and sustained way, helping you to recover from burnout, and prolonged periods of stress 

This session will benefit you if you are

• feeling lethargic and tired, even after a good night’s sleep

• feeling flat, unmotivated and have a tendency to procrastinate

• feeling stuck and finding it hard to move forward

• prone to experiencing low moods and negative thinking

• looking to reconnect with your mojo

How you can expect to feel

• more energised, in a calm way

• clearer in your thought process

• like you can start engaging in something new/the next task

• more emotionally regulated

• some people may feel temporarily tired as they start to engage their vagus nerve to regulate their nervous system