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5-4-3-2-1

A wonderful practice for the moments you can feel the overwhelm - physically and/or mentally. This practice will help bring you back to the present so you can move forward with clarity and reason. (in the moment practice, can be done anywhere/anytime)

This practice is likely not new to many of you but it is powerful. When emotions get overwhelming, they can take over. It doesn’t matter where you are, when you start to feel that overwhelming (physically and/or mentally) feeling - I always feel physically first - you can use this exercise to ground yourself…bring yourself back to the present moment. 

  • Leave your eyes open (another reason this is great because you can do it anytime, anywhere) and notice 5 things that you can see.
  • Next, notice 4 things you can feel. Take a few deep breaths as you do this.
  • Now, notice 3 things you can hear. Breathe.
  • 2 things you can smell. If you can’t seem to smell two different things, concentrate on the one you can.
  • Finally, what is 1 thing you can taste? Breathe

This won’t make everything suddenly go away, but it grounds you so that your brain is no longer jumping and you can think clearly. Is whatever caused the overwhelming feeling worth that energy? If so, what is just 1 thing that you can do to approach it. Start with 1 thing. Do that. However, often once our reasoning brain kicks in, we realize that it isn’t.