Working on a tight deadline recently, I found myself stretched beyond my usual capacity for chaos and craziness and in great need of some fresh ways to get grounded fast, and find my inner flame (that positive place that I usually come from, but sometimes it goes a bit dark.)
Here are 3 fast techniques for finding your calm in the midst of chaos:
Positive Reading (5 minutes) 
For me this is Daily Word and Creative Thinking, a page a day in each; it takes less than 5 minutes and yet this establishes my entire tone for the day. It can be a favorite uplifting blogger you read, an motivational moment in email, or a page or two from a favorite book. You can call it an affirmation. Get out of the details and just find the positive ingredient that works for you.
Give Yourself a Hug (Starbuck’s or better)
Believe me I know this one so well it is scary. Every time I get wrapped up in a big project I forget to eat and find myself tired, stressed out, and snapping at people. In my regular routine, I eat regular healthy meals. So when I am in the midst of something beyond regular I allow myself some indulgences. Not enough to get me off track, just enough to give me a pick me up. For example, during the last two months, I probably enjoyed a Starbuck’s frappucino every other day. Normally I don’t have any at all. The trade off was I wasn’t getting time for lunch. Now nutritionally I don’t recommend this, but I needed a self hug to relieve the stress and my Starbuck’s did the trick.
Practice Gratitude
When things got their craziest and I was feeling like nothing would get done on time, I’d step back for even two minutes and start going over in my head (out loud when in my car) all the things I was grateful for, people, products, places, passion and more. This has an immediate calming effect because you realize very fast how lucky you are and this also gives you energy to jump back into the fray.
So when you feel yourself spinning down that path of chaos, take action with an of the three techniques here and feel yourself energized, calmer, more in control and back on top of whatever project, issue, or challenge is in front of you.
Please do share your favorite techniques for finding your flame in a hurricane!
