Hello and welcome to the session,
I invite you to take a seat or lie down and get yourself comfortable,
You can close down the eyes if you wish and just begin slowing down the breath,
Breathing in slowly through the nose,
Deeply into the belly,
Holding there for a moment or two and then slowly releasing once again through the nose,
Just taking another slow deep breath in through the nose,
Into the belly,
Holding for a moment and then just gently releasing,
The purpose of this session is to help ground you,
To calm you down and return you back into your body,
You can use this session in response to overwhelm,
Triggers,
Panic attack or any other form of anxiety or dysregulation,
There are a number of ways to ground yourself but the easiest is one that you've already begun,
Slowing down the breath and I encourage you for the duration of this session to just continue to take slow calm breaths into the belly and then gently releasing through the nose,
Nose low and slow,
This kind of breathing will help activate parasympathetic nervous system,
The collection of parts of your body that activate when you are calming down and it will begin to trigger a positive feedback loop,
As your body calms down your mind will register that your body is calming down,
If you're breathing deeply and slowly well you must be safe,
Therefore the anxiety and overwhelm and other triggered thoughts will begin to subside and as they begin to subside you'll be able to breathe slower and deeper,
Thus you will slowly come to regulate and calm down,
Now you could choose to use a formal breathwork approach,
Common one is box breathing,
You breathe in for four seconds,
Hold the breath for four seconds,
Breathe out for four seconds and hold the breath for four seconds,
Repeating this cycle until your mind and your body are calm,
If that's something you would like to try I encourage you to do so,
But it's not necessary and for some people the structure can be overwhelming,
So all you need to do is just slow and deepen the breath a little bit more,
Nose low and slow,
Another thing you may like to do is practice present state awareness or 5 4 3 2 1 grounding,
This method involves you checking in to what your senses are picking up in this moment right now,
For the next few minutes just pay attention to what your senses are picking up,
You can take a moment to open your eyes and look around the room and take note of five things that you can see,
Really look carefully and closely,
Paying deep attention to the colors,
The shapes,
The movements and the play of light and shadow,
And now move on and try and track four things that you can feel,
Perhaps the sensations that's enclosed upon your skin,
The ground or the floor beneath you,
The temperature of the room and perhaps any internal feelings that are popping up,
What can you feel right now,
And now moving on to listening,
Try and hear three things in this moment,
Yes the sound of my voice is present,
But what else,
People,
Nature,
Technology,
Internal sounds,
Really taking a moment to pay attention to what you can hear,
And now moving on to noticing what you can smell,
Take a deep breath in through the nose and really focus your attention on what you can smell,
Can you pick up two smells in this moment,
Does your world smell like,
And perhaps if you want to you could take yourself to a plant or a herb,
Some other thing in your environment that has a nice and strong fragrance,
And finally what's one thing you can taste,
Maybe a lingering taste from a previous meal or a drink,
Maybe there's something you'd like to snack on,
If you do really take note of the complexity of the flavors that are present in your mouth,
Now that approach,
Present state awareness when combined with slow deep nose breathing is extremely grounding,
My personal preference is to take some slow calm breaths whilst cycling through what I can see,
Feel and hear in the moment,
And I keep doing that until I feel a little bit better,
The final thing I do in response to triggers,
Anxiety attacks and overwhelm is a cognitive intervention,
I'm taking slow calm breaths,
I'm feeling,
Seeing and hearing,
And I'm also reminding myself that I am okay,
That these sensations and these feelings of overwhelm will pass,
That I've gone through this before and I know what's happening,
And just like then so as now I will survive,
I remind myself that whilst it's not pleasant it is indeed manageable,
And as long as I maintain the slow deep breathing I will in fact be okay,
So I encourage you to do all of that now,
The next couple of minutes just maintaining a slow deep breath,
Cycling through what you're noticing,
What you can see,
What you can hear,
What you can feel,
And just reminding yourself that you are okay,
That whilst unpleasant these sensations will pass,
And that you've survived this before and you'll survive it again,
So I encourage you to do all of that now,
Slow deep breaths in through the nose,
Pausing for a moment and then gently releasing,
Focusing on what you can see in this moment,
What you can feel in this moment,
And what you can hear in this moment,
Gently reminding yourself that you're okay,
That it will pass,
And that whilst it's not pleasant you have survived things like this before and you will survive this one as well,
Okay,
So how are you going?
If you are not fully better,
If you are not grounded in your body and in the moment,
That's okay,
There's a couple of things you can do,
Number one is replay this track,
Rewind it,
Play it again from the start,
Breathing in slowly,
Focusing on what you can see,
Feel,
And hear in this moment,
Reminding yourself that you'll be okay,
That it will pass,
And that whilst it's not pleasurable,
You've survived things like this before and therefore you will survive this one,
And play this track as many times as you like,
But the other thing you might feel compelled to do,
If you are really feeling still,
Overwhelmed,
Or struggling,
Or triggered,
Is to reach out to someone in your life,
Perhaps calling a friend or a family member,
Or if you've got a pet that will help comfort you,
Connecting with them,
Or perhaps doing some self-care activities,
Like taking a shower or a bath,
Reading a book,
Listening to a song that will distract or relax you,
Eating some nice foods,
Or getting out in nature,
Moving your body and exercising,
Or some other thing that you know that works for you,
I encourage you to take those steps and come back to this session as many times as you like.
Thank you,
And may you have a peaceful,
Calm,
And relaxed day.
