Welcome to this short groundedness track which is intended to help you to stay present and grounded at various times during your day.
Quite often when we experience high levels of emotion during the day they can hook us in,
Can take us away from being present,
They can trigger us to past feelings and thoughts or future worries and mindfulness helps us to notice when this happens.
And when you do notice that you're not being present and that you're distracted,
This is a practice that you can use to bring yourself back to the moment.
You might want to begin by taking one or two deep breaths in through the nose and out through the mouth just to announce to your body that you're becoming mindful and centered.
And then you're going to begin with your eyes open by noticing five things that you can see.
Focus on each one,
One at a time and breathe with it as you really bring your awareness to the individual item that you can see.
Next,
Notice four things that you're aware of in your body,
Four physical sensations.
Again,
You can name them out loud or quietly to yourself.
Bring your awareness individually and completely to each sensation that you feel.
Take a few breaths with each one.
Next,
You're going to name three things that you can hear.
Identify different sounds that you're aware of and for each one,
Bring your awareness completely to that sound and breathe with it.
Now bring your awareness to your sense of smell and see if you can identify two different things that you can smell in this moment.
If you're unable to smell something where you are at the moment,
You can move,
Pick something up,
Go and find another space where you're able to smell something.
And again,
With each of the two smells that you identify,
Bring your awareness to them completely and breathe with them.
And finally,
Bring your attention to one thing that you can taste.
It might be the taste currently in your mouth.
Perhaps you can taste toothpaste or the remnants of your coffee.
Again,
If you want to go and find something to taste and to focus on,
That would be fine as well.
This practice of identifying five things you can see,
Four things you can feel,
Three things you can hear,
Two things you can smell and one thing that you can taste brings you back into complete contact and awareness with your physicality,
With your physical self and the present moment.
This exercise can take as little as two to three minutes and it can be done absolutely anywhere and you will be grounding yourself in the present moment and releasing yourself from the clutches of unwanted thoughts,
Feelings or sensations.
