Feeling Anxious? Try This

Moving. Uncertainty. A global pandemic. These are a few things that could trigger anyone’s anxiety and have definitely been triggering mine regularly over the past few months. I don’t know about you, but once I start feeling anxious about one thing, I can very quickly begin feeling anxious about all of the things.

Early on in my therapy journey, I learned the following tool to help snap myself out of an anxious spiral. I have found this to be helpful on many occasions and since we are all living through uncertain times, I wanted to share this tool with you in case you are feeling overwhelmed or anxious also.

The idea behind this tool is to help get you out of your head and ground you in the present by relying on your five senses – sight, touch, sound, smell and taste.

First, look around at your surroundings and identify five things you can see in the moment (a pen, plant, lamp, spot on the wall, etc. – anything in your immediate surroundings).

Next, identify four things you can touch or feel (your socks, a ring on your finger, the chair you are sitting on, etc.). 

Follow that with three things you can hear, two things you can smell and one thing you can taste (gum, saliva, your tongue, etc.).

This is relatively simple and doesn’t necessarily take very long to do. That is the point. The purpose is to shift your focus to your surroundings in the moment and away from what is causing you to feel anxious. So next time you start to feel anxiety creeping in, or spiraling out of control, focus on what you can see, touch, hear, smell and taste.