When anxiety strikes, it’s so easy to lose focus of the present moment. Your mind can shoot off into the depths of your past or into hypothetical futures that don’t actually exist. However, there is a simple mindfulness trick that’s becoming more and more popular with people all over the world.
It doesn’t matter how anxious you are, whether it’s a little bit here and there or feeling it all the time, becoming mindful of how you feel and getting yourself back into the present moment can help dramatically.
This is known as the 5-4-3-2-1 tool. It’s been proven countless times to be effective when you’re trying to combat feelings of anxiety and return to feeling like the ‘you’ you know and love.
However, instead of counting backwards from five to one, which is also effective when trying to return to the present moment, this trick using all five senses to really bring you back.
Here’s how to do it.
5 – See
When you start feeling those anxious emotions creeping into how you feel, look around your environment and highlight five things that you can see. These can be anything, just draw your focus to those objects and really sense and acknowledge what they are.
4 – Listen
After identifying five objects or things in your surrounds, then start to listen. Try and identify four unique sounds that you can hear. It could be music, a car passing by, people talking, birds singing, a tap dripping, just anything you can hear at that moment.
3 – Touch
Moving onto touch, wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, reach out and touch three unique items or objects. Again, this could be anything around you, from a table or seat to a ring, watch or piece of clothing on your body. Become mindful of what the objects feel like and the difference between all three.
2 – Smell
Take a deep inhale through your nose and see if you can smell anything around you. This could be as simple as fresh air, and if that’s all you can smell, then that’s fine. You might be able to smell somebody’s perfume or deodorant, or even food cooking somewhere far away. Try to locate the sources of these smells to help you return to the present.
1 – Taste
Of course, the final sense is your taste. You might not be eating anything at the time but ask yourself what you can taste. This could even be your tongue or running your tongue over your teeth, the roof of your mouth or your lips.
You can practice these steps as quickly or as slowly as you like but this is a sure-fire way to bring your mind back to the present moment. This mindfulness technique is based on a human psychology known as sensory awareness, and it’s something many of don’t use in our everyday lives.
So, if you’re feeling anxious or signs of anxiety are starting to creep up on you, try taking a moment to breathe. Follow through these five steps and get your mind back and happy to where it should be here in the Now.
