Embodied Mindfulness: A 5-Step Practice to Process Stress
A simple practice to feel and process stress, so your nervous system can close the loop and feel safe again. Easy to learn, harder to practice, and worth doing every day.
Audio guide
Prefer to be guided? Press play and follow along.
How to practice
1. Pause the story
Bring to mind something that irked you recently. Not the worst thing, just an easy one to start with. Then pause the story. If it resists, gently remind it: I'll come back to you. It's only a pause.
2. Find the contraction in your body
Do a quick body scan, head to toe. Notice where you're tightening or contracting, the way your shoulders might scrunch up when stress shows up.
3. Describe the sensation to yourself
Describe it as if you're 3D-printing it. Does it have a shape? A color? A texture, like sandpaper, smooth, or sticky? A motion, like twisting, pulling, or sinking? Is it hot or cold, solid or fragile? Get every detail.
4. Observe the image
Hold that feeling as an object and simply watch it with your mind's eye. Not changing it. Not judging it. What is it doing? Is it still moving, or just sitting there? Stay with it a minute or two longer than you think you should.
5. Unpause the story
Come back to the story and check in. How does it feel now? Almost always, the emotional charge has softened. The loop is closing.
These are only emotions. They are temporary. Give them space to be fully felt, processed, and let go.
Start small, and practice daily
Begin with low-hanging fruit: easier things for your nervous system to process, rather than jumping straight to the biggest wound. As your nervous system feels stronger and safer, you can move on to bigger things.
Make it a conscious part of your life until you notice it happening on its own, until you catch yourself processing something in real time, as it happens, rather than saving it for a quiet moment later. That shift is when you know you've moved into a state of regulation.
Regulation isn't about never experiencing stress or hardship. It's about being able to experience those things fully, without resisting or pushing them away. It's the difference between "that's stressful" and "that's stressful, but I can handle it."
More support
- Break Out of Burnout: a free guide to understanding burnout and finding your way back to yourself
- Somatic Sessions: hands-on Shiatsu and Reiki, with Your Five Element Map after every 75-minute session
- More free practices
Want help practicing this in your body?
In sessions, I guide this same practice while working hands-on, so your body can feel what letting go is like.
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