Welcome to the spiral exercise.
A brief technique to help you notice and address any tension or stress.
If you're coming to this knowing what to expect,
Have the recent stressor in mind.
If you're coming for the first time to practice,
Try to come up with kind of a recent,
Maybe annoying experience.
If we're talking zero to ten,
Zero's no big deal.
Ten's the worst thing you could imagine.
We're looking for something that's like a two or three.
It's kind of mildly annoying just to help us notice the experience in the body with that.
So pull up this recent memory,
This recent stressor,
And notice all the little details of that memory.
What was it that made you upset?
What did it feel like in the body?
Notice any physical sensations of tension or discomfort.
And as you're noticing these feelings in the body,
If you notice it in a few areas,
Maybe just focus in on the sensations that feel the strongest,
Most distressing.
Maybe in your chest,
Your head,
Or your shoulders,
Your belly.
Just notice that feeling and pretend that feeling is energy.
Imagine this energy moving in a spiral.
Just noticing whatever direction that spiral is going.
Then making note,
Is this spiral going clockwise or counterclockwise?
And now with your mind,
I want to ask you to change the direction of that spiral.
You may be able to do it right away or it might take a little extra effort,
Mental focus.
You might even need to imagine kind of inserting some kind of an object into the symmetry to help change the direction of that spiral.
Really focus in on changing the direction of this spiral and get it to move in the opposite direction from where it started.
Focus in and get that spiral moving in a good steady momentum the other direction.
As you notice the spiral moving steadily in the other direction,
Just kind of check in and notice whether any shifting has occurred in the experience you started with.
Maybe the memory itself feels a little lighter,
A little less of an impact.
Maybe those sensations in your body have shifted,
Feeling less tension.
Just notice that shift.
Notice what it feels like to have a sense of control over your internal experience using this technique to manage stress.
Turning to this as often as necessary until you've memorized these steps.
Do it on your own.
