5-4-3-2-1 grounding technique
This technique incorporates your five senses to help you bring yourself back into your body and the present moment. By the end of the exercise, you should feel more reconnected to the here-and-now as well as calmer.
Make yourself comfortable
Take a few deep breaths before you begin
5: Notice five things you can see in your immediate vicinity (e.g., I see a pen, I see a cup, I see a plant, a table and a book).
4: Find four things you can touch and feel around you. (e.g., I feel the ground under my feet, I feel my hair on my neck, I feel the chair I’m sitting in, I can feel the softness of my t-shirt).
3: Acknowledge three things you hear (e.g., I hear cars, I hear my stomach rumbling, I hear the wind).
2: Acknowledge two things you can smell. If you’re able to, you can go outside or move to another room to find something you can smell. It could be soap, grass, food or anything else you can smell. If you can’t smell anything, imagine your two favourite smells.
1: Acknowledge one thing you can taste. It could be food, gum, coffee, toothpaste etc. If you can’t taste anything, you can pop a mint or a take a bite of something or remember one of your favourite tastes
Thank you Preshika! I have been doing this and off for years as it is something that can be done anywhere at any time and brings me back into the present moment rather quickly. Sometimes I also do two rounds of this. However it is hard to remember that I have these tools in place, so thank you for the reminder that this exists and is always there so me 💜