Just as our bodies act against injury by producing inflammation, our souls react to stress with patterned responses. We become anxious when a loved one is sick. We feel irritated after an argument. Insomnia develops because we’re having problems at work. Our feelings and emotions are natural responses to the spiritual breaks, cuts, bruises, and threats we experience. They alert us when something is wrong. Problems arise when those emotional and spiritual reactions turn chronic. Anxiety, fear, and stress take charge even during what should be down time.

Caring for your soul can be difficult to do if you’re exhausted from a newborn who refuses to sleep, suffering from chronic disease, or simply feel fed up with the daily stresses of twenty-first-century living. When times like these arise—when your soul is raw and inflamed—try to remember who you are. Sometimes the best way to do this is to find something you love or once loved to do. Moving your body, stimulating your mind, and engaging in conversation might not sound like a way to ward off spiritual inflammation, but what these acts do is to help you recover a feeling of possibility and connection.

Excerpted from MicroShifts