C.A.L.M Practice

In moments where our emotions intensify, this simple practice teaches us to use our awareness of certain places--chest (C), arms (A), legs (L), and mind (M).

Transcript

Welcome.

This simple practice is helpful in those situations where we feel our emotions beginning to run away with themselves.

When we feel as if perhaps something is not going as we've expected,

Or there's some sort of source of tension.

So in those experiences,

We can use a framework called CALM,

Which stands for C for chest,

A for arms,

L for legs,

And M for mind.

So using our awareness of those different places in our body and mind to help us come back to a place of calm.

So let's try this together.

Wherever you are,

Whatever you're doing,

Just take a pause.

And for a moment,

Orient your attention onto your chest.

First,

Notice where your chest is.

Perhaps notice the rise and fall of your breath.

Notice perhaps the feeling of your clothes gently touching the chest.

And explore any sensations of the chest with complete curiosity.

Let's take a slow deep inhale and exhale.

And now gently shifting your awareness to your arms.

Noticing first where they are.

Are they hanging down by your sides or resting on something?

Notice any sensations around the upper arms,

The lower arms,

And the fingers.

And let's take another slow deep breath and exhale.

Now gently shifting your awareness to your legs.

Observing where they are.

Are you standing or sitting or perhaps lying down?

Is there any gentle pressure on the legs,

Perhaps the bottoms of the feet or under your seat?

Take a few moments to explore your legs from the inside out.

Let's take another slow deep inhale and let it go.

Now bringing your attention to your mind and imagining your mind as a vast ocean.

The waves representing your thoughts gently rising and always passing.

These waves always exist because that is the purpose of the mind as well as the function of the ocean.

But when you sink below the surface you can connect with a place of calm.

No waves,

Just a gentle current.

Find that place of calm.

And let's take a deep breath into this space.

Slowly inhale and let it go.

So I invite you to use this simple framework,

Calm,

In times of stress or frustration.

Moving your awareness through your chest to the arms to the legs and to your mind gives you the power to come back to your inner place of calm.

Thank you for joining this practice today.

I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day.

Reviews

This is a really great, quick & easy, guided way to recenter or calm (without feeling a need for a nap). This feels like it would be great at any time of day, & is short enough to take the handful of minutes, maybe even more than once, through the day; Wonderful. I'll use this often. Thank you for sharing your gift & insight. May you be happy, at peace, & blessed.

Thank you for sharing your talents!

I will come back to this meditation.

What a perfect and easily useful technique for returning to center. I will be using this frequently in the relative turmoil that is my life currently.
Thank you SO much!

Wonderful. Love the ocean metaphor. Thank you.

This is so relaxing that I kept falling asleep. After the third time i finally heard the whole thing and its only 6 minutes long! Lovely analogy of the mind like an ocean.

Logical & useful

It helped so much! Thank you :)

Helpful technique

Better than I anticipated. Thank you!

Neat tool. I think I'll share this with my students.

Short but sweet!

Loved the image of sinking below the waves of the mind.

This was fantastic! The conscious awareness it invoked was much appreciated. Bookmarking this for sure. Thank you!

Dry nice and useful practice. Enjoyed it very much.

Enjoyed. Thank you

More of a short body scan, but very enjoyable.

Excellent short meditation but a thorough body scan and easy acronym to remember.