In everyday life we become charged with other people’s moods, thoughts and worries.  Sometimes we start believing they are ours also.  This is wasted energy, and we don’t have any energy to waste. The following exercise is a very good way to “give back” those things that are heavy in our minds that don’t belong to us:

Take 10 minutes of silence in a comfortamble place where you won’t be bothered.

Close your eyes, take a few deep breaths to center yourself and think about your day, what happened and with whom.  In each situation observe what was happening outside of you and what happened inside of you.  For example, my son was cranky and disobedient, this made me feel helpless and frustrated.  My son’s mood is his, my reaction to it is mine.  There is nothing I can do to change my son’s mood, he’s going through his own stuff and needs to come to terms with it.  My feelings are my responsibilty, so I deal with those.  To deal with my feelings, I allow them to come, recognize them, feel them completely and then let them recede naturally, like a wave.  Then I imagine my son in front of me and imagine his crankiness and disobedience in a symbol, whatever comes to mind, and give it to him.  It’s his, I don’t  have to carry it for him.  Do this with every upsetting occurrence during the day, taking what is yours and dealing with it, and giving back what is not yours to that person or circumstance.  Try to finish this exercise with something positive that happended in the day.  Remember it and let yourself feel whatever feeling it brought forth in your whole body and then gratitude for that positive thing.  Keep the gratitude and open your eyes, going on with your day.  

This is a good exercise to do before bed, you can even enhance it having a notebook by your bed and wrting, of all the things that happened during the day,  anything you need to do and didn’t get done and need to finish in the morning.  Writing down your to do list makes it easier to take those things off your mind and fall asleep.