Noticing What's Around You

Some people struggle with intense emotions at times. Whether it's an anxiety attack or momentary overwhelming depression, it can sometimes be hard to manage a tidal wave of feeling. I call it the difference between 'walking the dog' and having the 'dog walk you'. In both cases you and your emotions are connected but it makes a big differences who's in charge.

One helpful technique during an upswelling of emotions is to simply begin actively noticing what is around you, without judgment. "I'm aware of sitting in a chair; I feel tears running down my face; I hear a bird outside the window; I see a lamp; my nose itches; the wall is light green; the lights are on; my left foot is crossed over my right foot", and on and on. The object is not to try to direct your thoughts in any particular direction but simply to notice what is happening inside and around you. I find it helpful to try to involve all five senses.

This can be a difficult trick at first. Experiencing a tsunami of emotions can make it difficult to direct your attention toward noticing your perceptions. That's the problem: strong feelings can carry you further into them like a whirlpool until you have lost your sense of balance and direction and are "upside-down" in your emotions. But noticing the wide range of perceptions you are capable of bringing to your awareness is like casting dozens of little lifelines around you. Slowly you find yourself becoming safely tethered to the world.

I think another reason it can be helpful to simply announce to yourself what you are able to notice around you (no matter how mundane and unrelated to your pain) is that it gives the mind something to pay attention to other than the emotion. In my experience this exercise is best done out loud rather than silently. By performing this simple technique you are neither repressing nor attempting to change what you feel. But by allowing the feeling to run its course in this manner you can be amazed how quickly the feeling returns to a manageable level.
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