Anxiety comes from  either being consumed with negative thoughts of the future or ruminating thoughts of the past…that feel predictive of the future. Your consciousness is hijacked into spiraling thoughts of despair and all of the potential worst case scenarios. When anxiety is severe, you may even become immobilized to move forward out of sheer terror of what that forward movement will bring. 

Rather than allowing the anxiety to take control of you, here is how you can take control of it:

Move your consciousness OUT of your HEAD and back INTO your BODY. Your mind can wander from one place or time to the next, but your body is only and always rooted in the present. Your consciousness cannot be two places at once. It can either be in your mind (lost in your thoughts) or in your body (focused on the present). 

So how can you move your consciousness from MIND to BODY? Here is one of the many ways this can be done:

Grounding

Grounding is a great way to get your prefrontal cortex (cognitive processing part of the brain) back online after anxiety has taken control. Grounding helps you reengage various parts of your brain by activating one sense at a time. This way you can move away from functioning only with your amygdala/limbic system, which is the fight, flight, or freeze zone of the brain.

Many people like to use the 5-4-3-2-1 method, where the goal is to find 5 things you can see, 4 thing you can feel, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. But honestly, if you lose count or do more or less of one than another, it is OKAY! The important thing is that you are actively taking back the control of your mind and body.

Sight

Look around you and focus first on what you can see with your eyes. What is something esthetically pleasing or calming in this place you are currently in. What is it you like about this particular thing.

There is a quote from Andy Warhol that says “Everything has its beauty, but not everybody sees it.” Pretend you are Andy Warhol- how might you find beauty in something ordinary around you? Examine details, pigmentations, shapes, patterns, and contrasts. Zoom in on various aspects of its appearance. 

Did you know there has been a lot of research on the positive mood boosting affects of spending time out in nature? I’m sure you did – but – did you also know just LOOKING at PICTURES of nature is almost just as effective? Oh how easily our brain can be deceived. Luckily, you can use this for your benefit, once you learn how!

Touch

What is your body feeling right now? Are your clothes tight, or are they lose on your skin? Are your feet planted firmly on the ground, or are you placing your weight on another part of your body? What are your hands currently touching/sensing? What is the temperature in the space you are in? Take time to feel what your body is receiving input from currently. 

Now that you are aware of what your body is feeling, is there anything uncomfortable that you can take control over? Perhaps slip your shoes off, or have a seat if you are tense and standing. Is there a way you can control the temperature through changing your location, adding or removing clothing, etc?

Sound

What can you hear currently? Really focus in on this and see what sounds are happening around you. 

Have you ever noticed how sounds seem so much louder in the middle of the night? It of course isn’t that the sounds are actually louder, but that you are more focused on the sense of sound due to your other senses not being as activated. 

Smell

Olfactory senses are so powerful! The sense of smell is the first nerve and the shortest sensory nerve in your body, going straight from the upper inside part of your nose to the brain. Smells are highly connected to memories likely because the olfactory nerve is near the limbic system (responsible for our emotions, behaviors, and responsible for our survival instinct). This means that we recall smells and often link them with either calming or triggering responses and behaviors. The good news is that if you often feel very relaxed while baking with vanilla, just smelling vanilla will produce that same calming response that the act of baking would. Perhaps you feel most calm when tinkering around in the garage, then just the smell of oil or gasoline is likely to have that same effect for you. (Thankfully- you can get that smell safely with this candle, rather than needing to go outside and sniff your car: Auto-Shop Candle)

Taste

Focus on your tastebuds. Maybe enjoy an ALTOIDS Arctic Strawberry mint (If you have never tried these, you really need to! Such a burst of delicious strawberry flavor!). You can take a sip from a warm cup of tea or coffee, or drink a cold glass of water. Enjoy and relish the flavor while you also explore the sensation on your tongue.  

Now that you have activated your senses and brought your conscientiousness back to being in the present with your body, you should be out of that panicked state and able to again process information in a more rational and complete way. And perhaps in doing so, you can now say…Enough with letting my mind run wild with my consciousness, that is for the birds!