Hi,
I'm Laurie Cameron,
And I'm so glad you're taking a Take 5 break with me.
I'm going to share with you one of my favorite easy tools to calm myself down,
And one that I share with all the kids in my neighborhood,
And my nieces and nephews,
And my daughter Ava Grace.
We use it when we're feeling afraid,
Or angry,
Or sad,
Or nervous,
Or scared.
Because sometimes our feelings get hurt,
Or sometimes we get really mad,
And it's so good to be able to have a really easy thing to do.
So here we go,
And know that you can come back and listen to this whenever you need to.
It's like your training to be a Jedi Master,
Learning how to calm your mind and body whenever you want,
So you can feel better and stronger.
So let's do it now.
We start with our hand.
Just take your hand,
The one you use most often,
And extend it out in front of you,
And spread your fingers wide open so it's like a star.
I call that hand like star.
So the first thing we do is we fan our hand out like a star,
Spreading the fingers wide apart.
And you can keep it right here in front of you,
Or you can lay it down flat,
Placing it on a table,
Or on your knee,
Or the sofa or chair.
Either way.
Okay,
Got it?
Great.
Next,
Take your pointer finger from your other hand and bring that pointer finger over to the base of your thumb,
To the bottom of your thumb,
And begin to trace along the hand that's fanned out like a star,
Bringing your finger up the thumb,
Over the top,
And down.
Now bring it up again,
Over the top,
And down.
And we're going to keep going.
But I want to pause for a minute and add another piece to it,
And that's breathing.
Deep breathing is so calming for us,
So we're going to breathe deeply while we trace our hand like a star.
So ready?
Take your pointer finger,
Go back to the bottom of your thumb,
And now we'll take a nice big belly breath in as we go up the top of the thumb,
Over,
And exhale as we come down.
Now going up,
Taking a breath in as we go up the pointer finger,
Over the top,
And come down,
Exhaling.
That's it.
Taking a breath up,
Over the top,
And down the third finger.
Beautiful.
Now taking a nice breath in,
Up,
Finger number four,
Over the top,
And down.
That's it.
And now the final number five pinky finger,
Up,
Over the top of the pinky,
And down.
Oh,
That's wonderful.
You can bring your hands together.
It's almost as if they're hugging each other,
Holding them tight.
And then relax.
Let them go,
Shaking your star hands out.
Just taking a nice breath here.
You did a great job.
So just take a nice deep belly breath in again,
Feeling your tummy rise and fall.
How do you feel now?
Do you feel different than when you started?
You can do the take five with a star hand again and again with me listening to this or by yourself,
Anywhere you want,
In your room,
In the car,
In the kitchen,
Between your classes or activities.
Pretty soon,
You'll just do it naturally.
It'll just come,
And you know that you can just reset yourself.
It's like hitting a reset button,
But using your hand and your breath.
I'm so glad you were here practicing with me,
And you have an easy tool to create calm and peace whenever you need it.
May you be happy.
Thank you for practicing take five with me.
