Take Ten Breaths
This is a simple exercise to centre yourself and connect with your environment. Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.
- Take ten slow, deep breaths. Focus on breathing out as slowly as possible until the lungs are completely empty – and then allow them to refill by themselves.
- Notice the sensations of your lungs emptying. Notice them refilling. Notice your ribcage rising and falling. Notice the gentle rise and fall of your shoulders.
- See if you can let your thoughts come and go as if they are just passing cars, driving past outside your house.
- Expand your awareness: simultaneously notice your breathing and your body. Then look around the room and notice what you can see, hear, smell, touch, and feel.
Drop Anchor
This is another simple exercise to enter yourself and connect with the world around you. Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.
- Plant your feet into the floor.
- Push them down- – notice the floor beneath you, supporting you.
- Notice the muscle tension in your legs as you push your feet down.
- Notice your entire body – and the feeling of gravity flowing down through your head, spine, and legs into your feet.
- Now look around and notice what you can see and hear around you. Notice where you are and what you’re doing.
Notice Five Things
This is yet another simple exercise to centre yourself and engage with your environment.
Practice it throughout the day, especially any time you find yourself getting caught up in your thoughts and feelings.
- Pause for a moment
- Look around and notice five things that you can see
- Listen carefully and notice five things that you can hear
- Notice five things that you can feel in contact with your body (for example, your watch against your wrist, your trousers against your legs, the air on your face, your feet upon the floor, your back against the chair).
- Finally, do all of the above simultaneously
Russ Harris 2009 www.actmadesimple.com reprinted by permission of New Harbinger: www.newharbinger.com