Ten Days Calm

Day 10: There's a Hole in my Bucket

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Have you ever heard of the phrase ‘stress container’? It’s the place we keep hold of all of our stress. You might visualise it as a cup, a bath, or a bucket.

 

We all have an imaginary bucket within ourselves that holds our stress. Every time we encounter a stressful situation or feel stress, the bucket fills up. 

 

This may be a slow trickle, perhaps you feel a bit stressed every time you come into the kitchen and nobody has unloaded the dishwasher, or when someone cuts you up in traffic. 

 

You might come up against one very stressful event and your bucket, rather than have a slow trickle instantly fills.

 

Life is a constant balance of keeping the bucket from overfilling.

You may have a glass of wine in the evening, you may treat yourself to a bubble bath once a week, or you may go for a long walk. Each of these activities to reduce stress are holes in our bucket. 

 

We can either wait until our bucket is about to overflow before we are panicked into putting holes in the bucket, just managing to keep the levels low enough not to overflow.

 

Or we can decide to put a few more holes in our bucket while the levels are still low. Not only does this mean our overall level is low, but means we have some room for emergencies if we need.

 

Pause for just a moment and consider your bucket. How big is your bucket? Where is your level right now? Is your bucket gaining faster than it can lose?

 

Maybe it's time to put some more holes in your bucket.

 

In life we all set ourselves goals, in yoga we call them intentions. Either way, setting goals is a great way to make ourselves accountable. In yoga we repeat this intention to ourselves to reinforce it, in life we may write the goal down and stick it to the bathroom mirror so that we see it every morning, reminding ourselves of what we want to achieve. We may tell other people about our goals so that they can hold us accountable.

 

I’d like to invite you to set yourself a goal or intention to take at least a small part of what we have covered in Ten Days Calm and carry it on. Think about what we have covered, did any one thing resonate with you more than the others? Did you feel calmer after one particular session? What one thing (or more than one thing) can you implement into your daily life?

 

I am currently working on a few ways of delivering more of this to you. There are two yoga nidra courses in the making, a general course and a specific iRest one. These courses will be available here where you signed up for Ten Days Calm.

 

There is also a podcast with recordings such as the ones you’ve listened to here. You’ll find it by searching ‘The Smithy Room Podcast’ wherever you listen to your podcasts.

 

If you’ve found me through the website, I also have Instagram, TikTok and a Facebook page, all are called ‘The Smithy Room’. Let’s stay in touch!