Quick-Seat Chair Presents When Sitting & Waiting Are Stressful: Relief

by Khadi Madama

Quick-Seat Chair Wellness Coordinator

One of the most difficult things to do is to wait, especially when you’re away from home. When we are out and have an unexpected wait time at the doctor’s office, or anywhere where we didn’t expect to have to wait at all, there isn’t a lot to keep our minds occupied and this little snag in our plans can be a real bother. It’s easy for our minds to be like wild horses out on the open plain with no particular place to go except into feeling stressful.  But there is a solution.

A couple of months back, I took a lovely little course on Mindfulness for Stress and Trauma, as the more I meet and speak with people or catch a news blast, there is plenty of that going around right now and unfortunately, most places have huge TV screens that are tuned to nothing but bad news. As a professional stress management consultant, I can’t for the life of me understand why doctor’s offices and medical treatment centers play the stuff that scares the stuffing out of people they are trying to treat.

Thank goodness there is hope, at least, for those of us who embrace solutions. At  Quick-Seat  Chair, we provide the solution to the problems of limited seating in challenging environments, and we’d like to think that we can couple the physical and mental stress with simple solutions for when our guests are sitting  with us in those difficult times of ‘waiting’.

Back when I was providing direct care in the assisted living, skilled nursing and memory care areas of health industry, I learned and developed various techniques that worked so well for not only myself, but for people with whom I interacted, as they were always having to wait for one thing or another. I was happy to see, in this latest course that I took, a confirmation of encouraging information to verify that I’ve been on the right track all along.

Usually, once you have found your place to sit, (hopefully on a Quick-Seat Chair), the next thing to do is to figure out what do do with your hands. This concept goes way back to that old adage about not having idle hands, which can lead to bad thinking. So, with that in mind, let’s have a trial run of some Mindfulness by sitting wherever you are.

If you can, close your eyes, try to focus on one chosen thought. Make it simple and happy. Can you think of a happy memory? Is there a time in your life that always makes you smile. I have many and I’m sure you do, as well. Use your mind to take you into this inner landscape completely. Fold your hands so they are comfortable. Or merely place one upturned palm onto your other upturned palm. Now start your inner journey while simply letting your breath find it’s own rhythm without trying to control it. But do breathe in and out only through your nose, if you can. This is so much more soothing to your brain. If there are nice sounds that you like in your environment such as music or the sound of a train going by, let your mind latch onto those sounds and connect your inner journey with them. If the sounds are not soothing but agitating, then you will have to delve deeper into your inner journey by concentrating more intently to shut their drone out, but you will. You can learn to do that.

Allow your shoulders and spine to relax. Your shoulders should be relaxed and allowed to roll sightly forward (we’re not in a military line up, so no need to be straight as a stick). Let your spine settle downward each time you exhale taking care that your breath should flow comfortably, not as an exercise.

Now, it’s time to just think of that place you want to be in your happy memory. Think of nothing else. Tell yourself a story by speaking to yourself such as, “I’m …..years old and with my……..it’s a sunny day and we’re ……… Just fill in the blanks. Silently say how you feel and see what you’re wearing, eating, and a fun activity, and so on until the scene is very real. Remain as long as you are comfortable.

You will find that with practice, you will be able to enter this ‘stress free happy zone’ almost instantly. Of, course you can change the people, places and events whenever you wish as long as you have a sense of being truly happy and enjoying your life.

If you like, you may complete your session with this happy affirmation activity to perform at your leisure:

“Today, I am starting my new journey to health, happiness and well-being.”

Quick-Seat Chair. Temporary Seating That Closes Itself. We Hold You Up!