Finding Calm within the Storm
These steps are foundational to becoming more present with yourself and embodied so you can safely process intense emotions, overwhelm and stressful situations.
Stay with me… and these 5 Simple Steps:
S T E P 1 Listen to your breath.
Don’t change it, just listen and notice it. Soften your face and jaw.
S T E P 2 Feel your feet on the ground.
Stay with Step 1 (listening to your breath), while feeling your feet on the ground.
S T E P 3 Bring attention to your hands, just feel them.
Stay with Step 1 & 2 (listening to your breath, feeling your feet on the ground), and notice your hands. Gently feel your skin, your border, your container.
S T E P 4 Notice your pelvis and legs.
Stay with Steps 1-3 (listening to your breath, feeling your feet on the ground, noticing your hands), and bring focus to your lower body. Feel your lower body’s strength and support.
S T E P 5 Orient around your space, use your eyes, head and neck to move very slowly.
Stay connected to Step 1-4 (listening to your breath, feeling your feet on the ground, noticing your hands, bringing focus to your lower body) all while orienting to your environment.
Repeat as needed!
Lets shift our attention now towards somatic and psychoeducation:
Your body is filled with all the medicine you need. Accessing that wisdom start with the steps above. Your overwhelming sensations and emotions that you experience are there for a reason, and are NATURAL. They are not bad, you are not broken, and you shouldn’t fear them. Our body experiences (no matter how chaotic and uncomfortable) are not to be seen as negative, or something to try to get rid of (unless you want to get into trouble in the future). They are an opportunity for us to grow and learn. The key to softening the intensities of overwhelm is to BE WITH the intensity. Yes, that is the truth. And, to do this safely, getting back into and befriending your body is key because we have been trained to have very little skill when it comes to experiencing our very own birthright: our somatic experience.
When to use this practice?
When you are NOT stressed out - this helps build neuropathways that will be useful when you DO get stressed out.
When your sugar of caffine craving creeps up - to lower your stress hormones.
To open up flow in your body - when there’s flow between your brain, body and all the in-betweens, your quality of life, your work creativity and productivity, improves.
When you are overwhelmed, nervous or feel like you need to calm down - to give your digestive, immune and heart systems time to repair and regenerate for greater health, energy and less illness long term.
Get my recorded Grounding Resource Meditation that’s part of the finding “calm within the storm” series!
Source: Somatic Experiencing International, Integrative Somatic Trauma Therapy, Somatic Stress Release
