Coming Back To Our Senses
If you're feeling anxious or overwhelmed and you're reading this, you're likely very close to a genuine feeling of peace and rest. I know it may not feel like it. But like a person in a thick forest who is only a couple of feet from a clearing, rest is much closer than it seems.
If you are feeling "in the woods," I invite you to take only five minutes to find your way back using a path that is both incredibly simple and effective. There are good reasons why this works so well, but rather than convince you, I'm just going to show you:
For one minute, look up. Take in everything you can with your eyes—the colors, the lights, the contrasts. Don't try to make sense of or label it. Like a child, only see what you see.
For another minute, listen. Take in everything you can hear. Once you've heard all there is to hear, listen further and hear more. Hear what you hear.
For the third minute, feel what you feel with your skin. The texture of your clothes. The temperature of the air. Feel your socks. Notice all the feelings of touch we tend to take for granted. Are you wearing a hat? Feel the crown of your head. The soles of your feet. Do all of this without moving.
Take one minute to smell what you smell. Take them all in. Savor them.
For the final minute, taste what you taste. This one can be tricky if you're not eating (although still possible). But you can also use this one minute to run to the kitchen, grab a single raisin or a berry, and taste every nuance of it. Savor it, even after you've swallowed it. (Imagine eating an entire meal like this!)
Welcome back to presence.
When we feel anxious or overwhelmed, it's often because we're stuck in our thoughts about things, not actually overwhelmed by them. When this happens, trying to think our way out will only draw us deeper into the woods. But no matter how deep we go, peace and rest are only ever a moment away.
We don't need to change anything, or anyone. We only need to come back to our senses.