This exercise is designed to help you surf an urge that you might be having right now.
An urge is an impulse to engage in a behaviour.
And urges are often experienced as physical sensations in your body.
Like waves in the ocean,
Urges swell up.
They peak before they eventually crash,
Washing away as time goes on.
Urges are similar.
They rise in intensity,
Then they plateau before they come back down again.
This exercise can help you manage the urge as it increases in intensity,
Or if you're at the plateau point as well.
Urges can typically pass in 20-30 minutes if we just let them.
When you're ready,
Closing your eyes,
Using this opportunity now to fidget and move around until you feel comfortable.
And tuning into your body,
Where do you feel the physical sensations of this urge?
When just being curious about what these physical sensations feel like in your body,
Without judging them or trying to push them away,
Just notice what these physical sensations are like.
If you had to describe them to someone,
How would you do this in a non-judgmental way?
Once you've noticed where the urge is in your body,
Notice any thoughts that might be coming up.
Notice the thoughts like,
I can't bear this,
I don't want to do this,
This is intolerable.
And notice that these are just thoughts.
It's okay to have these thoughts,
But instead of getting hooked or stuck with them,
Just try to let them pass.
Bringing your attention to your breath now and just taking a deep breath in,
Feeling your chest as it rises with each in-breath and falls with each out-breath.
It can help to breathe into the area where you can feel your urge the most in your body.
Allowing the breath to move in and around this area.
Bringing your breath to soothe you as you tolerate the experience of this urge.
It might even help you to imagine the breath moving into your mind,
Like a gentle breeze helping you to let go of any judgmental thoughts that are arising as you try to surf this urge.
Notice how you can sit here and experience this without having to act on anything at all.
Allowing yourself to simply have this experience.
And noticing that when we let go of any judgments about how uncomfortable it is,
It becomes a lot more tolerable to experience the physical sensations of the urge in your body.
Continue to breathe into the physical sensations of the urge.
Being curious to notice if anything changes.
It's okay if it does.
It's also okay if it doesn't.
Just noticing how you're allowing yourself to tolerate this urge right now.
It may help you to imagine these sensations as a wave.
And with each rise and fall of your breath,
Imagine a wave just washing over you.
Feeling it to calm the intensity of your sensations.
Continuing to breathe and letting go of any judgmental thoughts that have popped up.
Now taking one last deep breath in,
Breathing in through your nose,
Really pushing your breath out through your mouth.
It can help to breathe in and as you breathe out,
Really sigh your breath out.
Take a moment now to thank yourself for allowing yourself to tolerate the experience of these physical sensations in your body.
Reflect yourself on your efforts of not acting on the urge and continue doing this exercise until the urge has passed.
With urges they do tend to have a second peak,
So come back to this exercise if you need to serve this urge again.
But for now,
Whenever you're ready,
Gently opening your eyes and bringing yourself back to the room.
