30-Second Pause For Overwhelm

This is a brief practice for staying connected to your body in times of distress. Whether you focus on your hands or your feet, this practice of picking a part of the body to truly inhabit and breathe can allow for instant grounding and coming back to self.

Transcript

A 30 second pause for overwhelm.

The next time you are finding yourself in a dysregulated or overwhelmed state,

I invite you to stop what you're doing.

Eyes can remain open and locate either your feet or your hands with your eyes.

So maybe your hands are on the tops of your knees,

Tops of your thighs as you're sitting down.

And I invite you to just look at them,

Each finger,

Maybe turning them palm side up,

Palm side down.

And then entering into your hands as if you could experience your hands from the inside out.

This practice of being in the body,

But just through the hands.

You can do this with your feet.

Locate your feet.

What surface are they on?

What does it feel like beneath your feet?

And taking a few slow deep breaths as you rest your attention on just one part of the body,

Your hands,

Your feet,

Your nose,

It could be any part.

This is the beginning of taking up space in your body,

Staying connected to yourself when you're feeling dysregulated or overwhelmed.