Dear Caroline,

If this [walking in nature and engaging all of your senses] helps then I will practice that more.

Yes, it does help with grounding. The more grounded you are, the less chance that your nervous system will go automatically into dissociation. It’s like creating new neural pathways, which enable you to stay more present… Anyway, try it and let us know how it went…

 I have still a lot to do and fix about me.

Sure, personal growth is a slow and gradual process, with ups and downs, and it never ends 🙂 Sometimes you’ll feel great about yourself, the next day you’ll feel like you’re back in the old patterns. Throughout it all, it’s important that you have compassion for yourself and are patient with yourself. If you haven’t succeeded to respond the way you wanted today, you can try again next time. Patience, self-compassion and taking small steps… I think those are key to progress.

Anita made a great point how watching TV (even trashy shows) is a way to unwind and calm down after a stressful day at work. We all need to unwind on a daily basis, to relax and soothe ourselves… With time, you’ll find better ways to soothe yourself: more of the self-care activities (such as talking walks, which you’re already doing), and less of the empty stuff, which doesn’t nurture your soul.

But as anita said, don’t be harsh on yourself if you sometimes end up binge watching on those TV shows… What you can do is you might limit the time you spend watching those shows, say instead of the entire afternoon and evening, you tell yourself that you’ll spend max 2 hours in front of the TV. So you make a compromise with yourself: a little bit of your favorite TV show, and a little bit of something else, which is a healthier/more nurturing type of relaxation. So no one loses and everyone wins 🙂