5–4–3–2–1. Simple Technique to Overcome Stress and Return to Yourself
One of the secrets of dealing with stress is that the source of anxiety is almost always locked within your mind. While you are sad about the past or worried about the future, your body lives in the present. Your senses and breath are always here, in the moment. So, if emotions are out of control and intrusive thoughts are taking up all the space in your head, enlist the help of your physical body’s sensors.
Let’s discover a simple mindfulness technique that helps to cope not only with mild anxiety but also with severe panic attacks.
5–4–3–2–1 grounding technique: what’s the point?
Almost all meditative practices are based on shifting attention from thinking to perceiving. The 5–4–3–2–1 technique is actively used in psychotherapy and involves a step-by-step concentration on the senses.
By shifting your attention, you:
– Turn off unnecessary thoughts;
– Normalize breathing and heart rate;
– Reduce emotional discomfort;
– Return your thoughts to their effectiveness;
– Will be able to find the right solution to the problem.
Step 5. Concentrate on five visual objects
It can be something big and catchy (the sky above your head, a building across the street, a distant landscape) or small details: the lines on your palm, a picture on the wall, the dial on your watch. Look closely at each selected object, noting its color, saturation, and outline.
If you want to complicate the task, try looking for objects with the same feature: five red or round items.
Step 4. Find four different tactile sources
It could be the floor under your bare feet, the fabric of your shirt on your body, or the wind blowing in your face: anything that evokes a sensation on your skin. Focus on each sense individually. Is it warm, cool, soft, or rough? Pay attention to every nuance.
Step 3. Listen for three different sounds
We are surrounded by sounds and stimuli that our brain has learned to filter out so that we can focus on our business. Turn off that filter and listen carefully to the sounds around you. What do you hear? The buzzing of cars? The barking of a dog on the street? The rain drumming on the roof? Which sounds do you like to focus on?
Step 2. Scent the three smells
If you are outdoors, notice the smell of trees or the scent from a nearby coffee shop. If at home, pick up any perfume or, for example, fruit from the dinner table. At the very least, you can study the smell of your skin or a freshly laundered T-shirt.
Step 1. Taste Something
Take a sip of tea from a cup or grab a mint gum. Focus on what you are tasting and how it feels in your mouth. What makes that object taste good? How do your receptors respond to it?
When you feel your emotions taking over, take a few minutes to ground yourself. This will help you maintain control of your mind and cope more effectively with your current life circumstances.
Make it count with Inite!
Simply set the timer for 5 minutes and put the phone aside: if you pick it up, the report will stop. During this time, turn on your senses one by one according to the above guidelines. Make a note of these feelings. Immediately after the practice ends, write the results in Inite. List what you have seen, felt, heard, smelled, and tasted. The app will reward you with Idea tokens for each record, which you can use inside the game or exchange for USDT and other cryptocurrencies. And the saved entries can be used as a “sense diary”. After some time, you can easily replay this or that moment of your life in your memory!
