Calming Our Minds

One helpful skill in calming our minds is being one-mindful. Being one-mindful means focusing on one thing at a time and being in the moment. I often tell my clients that we get stuck when ruminating over the past and future. This often provokes anxious thoughts and feelings. We want to be in the present which can help to calm our minds. 

My favorite skills to use that help to calm my mind are self sooth and grounding skills. We can use our 5 senses (see, touch, taste, smell and hear) to self sooth. This means choosing a soothing and relaxing activity for the sense. 

Example: Watching waves at the beach, feeling the warm sand between our toes, tasting the salt in the air, smelling the sun tan lotion we put on our warm body, and listening to the birds. I personally find water soothing and it can help to calm my mind when it’s boggled with anxious thoughts. There are many grounding activities that we can use that can help to calm our minds. My favorite mental grounding activity is 54321 (5 things you can see, 4 things you can touch, 3 things you can hear, 2 things you can smell and 1 thing you can taste). Some other grounding activities are saying ABC’s backwards, playing a memory game, describing your surroundings and listening to music. 

There are also physical grounding techniques such as squeezing our muscles and releasing, putting our hands in running water, taking a bubble bath, drinking hot tea and going for a walk. I find self-soothing and grounding to be great skills for calming the mind. There are so many activities out there. Everyone is unique, so if one doesn’t work for you, there are plenty of other techniques to try. It’s also important to remember that grounding and being able to sooth takes practice. So as always practice, practice, practice and you to will be able to calm your mind!