Tuning into your senses is the key!
In the previous blog I talked about how paced breathing and grounding techniques can help lower anxiety and bring your thoughts back from the fearful future, into the here and now.
Now I’d like to share another of my favourite techniques that can really help bring greater calm when you’re feeling anxious, stressed or find yourself over-thinking.
Again, the aim is to bring your focus out of your head and into the present, and the easiest way to do this is to mindfully focus on one of your senses – sight, sound, taste, touch or smell.
How will this help me stop worrying?
So, as an example, let’s say you’re walking to the dentist for a routine check-up. In your mind you’re remembering all the biscuits, chocolate and Cadbury’s Mini Eggs you scoffed in lockdown and are now imagining the almighty drilling that’s going to result. You’re feeling sick, and anxious, and guilty, and….
OK stop right there!
Rather than spiralling off into anxiety or even catastrophising, I want you to bring your focus on to your surroundings, and to say out loud (or in your head if that feels more comfortable) all the things you can hear for the next hundred metres of your walk. For example, you might say – ‘I can hear my feet pounding on the pavement, I can hear loud punk music coming from an open window on the left. The zip on my rucksack is rattling slightly, and there’s a magpie chattering in the tree. I can hear the roar of traffic at the junction ahead, and a car alarm has gone off….’
You get the picture.
You can set the parameters. Maybe you only want to do it for a minute, or until you reach say, the 5th lamppost along the road. Or maybe you’d like to keep doing it all the way to the dentist/work/or wherever you’re going, or just until you feel calmer.
I spy….a quick way to feel calmer.
If hearing is an issue, or things are pretty quiet right now, choose another sense. If you’re sighted then, again, follow the same protocol and list what you can see. It’s important that you put it into words either out loud or in your mind. Otherwise you’ll just be walking around, seeing things like you always do, with your head off in your own thoughts. To stay focussed, really notice and name the detail. So instead of ‘I can see an old lady’ it becomes – ‘I can see an old woman wearing a pink coat, with a green handbag and a leopard print trolly on wheels.’ Again, just try it for a few moments and see how you find it.
You can do the same with the other senses, and while taste and smell, might not seem so easy, when you really focus your mind on the sense of touch it’s amazing what you’ll notice. Can you feel your gums against your teeth? The soles of your feet against the inside of your shoes? The way your watch strap pinches your wrist. This is not about noticing internal feelings (rumbling tummy etc) or about emotional feelings, but the sensation of being physically here in the present.
If you can combine this with paced breathing, then even better. The beauty of these sense-based exercises, is that you can do them anywhere, even for just 20 seconds. Next time you find yourself feeling anxious, worried, or with an overly busy mind, pick a sense – any sense, give the exercise a whirl, and see what you discover.