We have all been there. You are at the supermarket after work, it has been a long day, you are exhausted. The line is taking forever. You notice your body starting to tense impatiently.
Throughout the day notice the moments in which you start to feel impatient, or anxious or even when you simply start to tense up.
It can be very easy for our mind to start to narrow in on this feeling and these thoughts and like adding fuel, it then increases in intensity.
A quick and easy technique to help guide your mind to step back from these moments is the 5 Sense Check In.
This is a quick and easy form of mindfulness that activates different sensory regions of the brain and so helps you to recalibrate and to psychologically step back. It is great to do when you think of it throughout the day – when you are driving, walking through the city, waiting in line, sitting at your desk…. and the more that you do it, the more that you will notice a developing capacity to also step back more easily from emotional or frustrating moments too.
The 5 Sense Check In is simple and effective (no one wants to be thinking about some complicated technique when you already can’t think straight because you are feeling overwhelmed or cranky!).
It simply involves noting:
5 things you can see (try to notice 5 unusual things or shapes you have never noticed before)
5 things you can physically feel (eg – shirt, feet against the floor, watch on wrist, breeze on skin)
5 things you can hear (try to notice the really faint noises too – closing your eyes helps but perhaps not in the check out line…!)
1 thing you can taste (may just be saliva or coffee remnant)
1 thing you can smell
When you next feel frustrated or anxious, try to do this before you respond and see how the response starts to take on a different, more grounded quality. It helps to widen our psychological lens and helps our brain to come unstuck from blinkered or habitual thought and reaction patterns.