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Find a comfortable position to sit or recline in. Take a moment to notice the quality of your mind (thoughts) and how your body feels before you begin. Score your level of stress from 1 to 10, 1 being the least stressed and 10 being maximum stress. After about 30 seconds, proceed through the following sensory prompts for 30 seconds to 2 minutes.
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Eyes and Sight Bring all your attention to your eyes and look around your space with childlike curiosity, notice objects, colours, shapes, light and what draws you and let your eyes settle on something that you like. Take a few moments to feel what happens in your body.
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Ears and Sound Next, bring all your attention to your ears as if you’d never heard a sound before and notice the world around you, notice details like loud or quiet, near or far, above you or below you, natural and mechanical. Take a few moments to feel what happens in your body as you indulge in hearing.
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Nose and Smell Next, bring all your attention to your nose as if you had the snout of a dog and notice the scents around you including odours, moisture or dryness and air temperature. Take a few moments to feel what happens in your body as you immerse yourself in smell.
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Tongue and Taste Next, bring all your attention to your tongue and mouth and notice the tastes and flavours, whether they are strong or faint, moist or dry, hot or cold. Take a few moments to feel what happens in your body as you focus on taste.
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Touch and Felt Sense Lastly, bring all your attention to touch and the felt sense of your body. Notice the air on your skin, the texture of your clothes, surfaces you are in contact with, softness, hardness, stiffness or pliability of your muscles, the movement of breath. Take a few moments to feel what happens in your body as you get lost in your sense of touch and movement
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Rotate - Finally, take the last minute to rotate through each sense again for 10 seconds. Smile and appreciate yourself for taking a few minutes to be kind to your mind and body. Then check back in with the quality of your mind (thoughts) and how your body feels. Re-score your stress from 1 to 10!
Karden Rabin is the co-author of The Secret Language of the Body out 23 May, and co-founder of Somia International