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The spooky season is in full swing! This month, you may have explored haunted houses, gone on a hay ride, carved spooky (or cute) pumpkins, watched scary movies, played horror games or read horror books. This month seems dedicated to the emotion of fear: exploring what scares us as well as scaring away creatures with scarecrows and jack-o-lanterns. So, this week, let’s look at the fear response.
Last week, we covered the dissociation spectrum: from everyday forms of dissociation to dissociative disorders. This week, we’ll dive deeper into the coping strategies we can use to manage dissociation.
Notice your breath.
Slowly inhale and feel your lungs expand;
then, release a long, relaxing breath.
Feeling lighter?
For most of the day, we breathe completely unconsciously, but breathing exercises are a simple, portable tool that can relieve stress and anxiety. So let’s shake things up a little bit and focus on our breath this week.
In previous newsletters, we’ve shared how engaging the senses helps ground us in the present. We’ve also shared steps to build your own sensory kits.
This week, we’re revisiting our senses and building (or adding to) our sensory self-soothing kit!
Grounding is a coping strategy designed to bring your focus to the present, or to “ground” you in the current moment. There are many grounding techniques that you can explore to see what works best for you, and one of these techniques is something you have at your fingertips: engaging with your 5 senses.
The 4-7-8 breathing exercise is a useful tool that can aid you in times of anxiety, internal tension, and upsetting situations. This exercise can also be used as a preventative practice against stress and anxiety when you implement this practice into your daily life.
Congratulations on taking this step!
We look forward to working with you!
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