Self-soothing with the five senses.
This is a wonderful exercise to help ground you in the moment and support you through riding the wave of intense feelings.
When you are feeling unsettled or anxious or dissociated,
Grounding through your senses can bring you back to center and back to the present moment.
This skill can be employed one sense at a time in a more planned way by having items available for a focused sensory experience.
For example,
Lighting a fragrant candle to smell or making your favorite tea to taste.
Or the senses can be used together as a method to work through towards calm right in the current moment.
Sight,
Sound,
Smell,
Taste,
And touch.
This is what we will do now.
Let's work through all five senses together.
Wherever you are,
Stop and connect with your senses.
Let's start with sight.
Look around what you see right where you are.
Notice what's around you.
Are there any living creatures?
Any animals or plants?
What physical structures are around you?
What shapes do they embody?
Take a look around,
Noticing the details of your surroundings as if it is your first time seeing all of it.
Notice the colors.
Notice the vibrance or the dullness of these colors.
What shapes do you see?
Look around and let your eyes take it all in.
Now,
Let's move to sound.
If it's safe to do so,
Close your eyes and listen.
What do you hear?
Notice the hum of the space you are in.
Do you hear people,
Animals?
Maybe you hear machines,
Cars perhaps,
Or maybe you hear music.
Notice the liveliness,
Even in what you may have thought was silence.
Notice what you hear.
Get lost in what you hear.
Get filled up by the sound of this moment.
Now let's move to smell.
With your eyes still closed,
If that's safe for you,
Take a deep breath in and let it out.
Notice what you smell.
What does the air hold in this moment?
Do you smell flowers?
Maybe you smell food.
Maybe just the usual smell of your home.
Notice what the air holds.
Notice how it feels to breathe in the air and smell the scent of where you are right now.
Now let's move to taste.
Do you have something to drink?
Can you take a sip?
Or maybe take a taste of a snack you may have with you.
Savor whatever it is you have put in your mouth.
Notice that taste.
As if it is for the first time you've ever tasted that thing.
If you have nothing to eat or drink in the moment,
And making something is not within reach,
Just notice the taste you are holding in your mouth.
Perhaps there is a taste of something you ate recently.
Or perhaps your attention to the taste in your mouth makes you aware of your current state of hunger or thirst that you didn't notice before.
Stay in this moment and notice the taste.
Now let's move to touch.
Notice the sensation of touch.
What is the feeling of your surrounding?
Where you are standing or sitting?
What is soft or hard or fluffy?
What does the earth feel like beneath your feet?
If you are wearing shoes,
Take them off,
And allow your feet to feel the sensation of touch and the energy of the ground beneath you.
How do your clothes feel on your body?
Soft or confining?
Perhaps place one hand over the other and feel the skin on the back of your hand.
Rub your hands together and feel the sensation of touch.
You have walked through your five senses.
Hopefully after connecting with your sense of sight,
Sound,
Smell,
Taste,
And touch,
You are feeling more grounded.
If you are still feeling unsettled,
Listen to this exercise again.
Either way,
Take a moment to notice where you are and how you feel.
Thank you for joining me here in this moment.
