A flowing stream...

I’m standing next to a flowing stream, a great meadow on one side of me and a hill up towards a beautiful forest in front of me.  I can hear the water bubbling in the stream and practically feel the soft breeze brushing against my skin. The sun is shining brightly and I can even faintly hear birds singing in the trees only a little bit away. I am relaxed, content and calm feeling ready to take on anything and everything.

Then I blink and I am sitting with other AmeriCorps members, still relaxed, still calm, and smiling and laughing with them as we all ‘come back.’ It is training day and our AmeriCorps member Frances has taught us the incredible skill of mindfulness and meditation, using imagery to help us find peace and quiet in the middle of a chaotic day.



Members Ruth & Nardya smile while they paint their guided imagery scene.

 

Sometimes working an AmeriCorps position becomes stressful, to a point where we feel burnt out or at our limit.  I think that our natural human reaction is to react strongly to what we see—we want to help more people than we can.  We feel despair when we think of the largeness of the homelessness issue or see someone struggling with a particularly sad story.  We get frustrated by our own limitations and the limitations of our organizations.  All of these happen because we are human and we want to help others the best we can.

Thankfully, Frances has shown us ways to handle life when days are especially hard.  She gave us the tools to relax in the middle of a stressful situation so that we can still be our best and do our best in our mission of helping others.  Together we all brainstormed different ways to decompress and to spend time doing what we love instead of working every second of the day.  Taking time for ourselves, I have learned through all of this, may be one of the most important parts of life in the midst of this craziness.  If we want to be any good for anyone else, we have to try to take the time to be okay and with it on our own. 

 

We learned about guided imagery techniques, which is when we are walked through a relaxing visual scene to help us take away from the situation.  We learned about deep breathing and how just taking a few moments to take some deep breaths helps us relax.  And we learned about the joys in painting and expressing yourself through art and conversation to help put things in perspective and take some time to enjoy life.

I will certainly be using what we have learned now in the future so that I can feel refreshed and deal with burn out as the year goes on.  It’s always wonderful to see what other AmeriCorps members bring to the group and how they can teach us so much to add to our own experiences.  Thanks Frances!

 

Written by Laura, AmeriCorps member.