This is the five senses exercise.
I am Abbey Cameron.
Before we begin,
I want you to take a few deep inhales through your nose and exhale completely out of your mouth.
Breathing out fully signals to our brain that in this moment we are safe and that everything's going to be okay.
And so as we're using our five senses to ground into the present moment,
It's very important that our body knows to be safe.
So just spend a moment kind of breathing in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.
When you're ready,
Just come to a comfortable position.
And the first thing I want you to notice is five things that you can see.
So I'm looking around my room.
I'm seeing five things,
Kind of taking a mental note of them.
And now just become aware of all of those things you see.
And now I want you to find four things you can hear.
So right now it's raining outside of my window.
I can hear my computer humming.
I can hear my heartbeat and even my own voice,
Which any one of those things you might be able to hear now to just take a moment and notice four things that you hear.
Once you've done that,
Now think of three things you can feel like texture and temperature.
So you can feel the air around you,
Feel your clothes,
Can maybe feel your feet on the floor or how you're seated in the chair.
Just notice the sensation of all of them.
And now find two things you can smell.
So this might be challenging for some people.
But I can smell the plant next to me.
I can smell my dog who's sitting in the room with me.
Just take a moment and notice two things you can smell.
And now the last one is noticing something you can taste.
I'll be tasting my water sitting here next to me,
But find one thing that you can taste.
Now a way to get really present is to write those things down.
But for this moment,
I just want you to try to notice all of them at once.
So all five things you can see.
Four things you can hear.
Three things you can feel.
Two things you can smell.
And one thing you can taste.
Try to be aware of all of them at once.
What this does is it brings you into the present moment and moves you out of the left side of our brain,
Which is always processing.
It's processing linear things and it moves us more into a holistic synthesizing part of our brain,
Which is the right side of our brain.
And it's always looking at things in a unique way.
And it keeps us very still and connected to what is happening right now.
So anytime you need to come to the present moment,
Practice this five senses exercise.
