Shake Off Stress and Find Your Inner Zen
Dr. Judy Ho
Clinical and Forensic Neuropsychologist | Tenured Professor | TV & Podcast Host | Published Author
You just got bad news.
Your heart’s racing.
Your mind’s moving at a million miles a minute.
You try to speak, but words fail you.
What can you possibly do in this scenario?
Ground yourself.
A grounding practice can be extremely helpful during moments of intense anxiety, or even panic.?
When your mind is full of negative, catastrophic thoughts like I don’t deserve good things, I’ll never be in a relationship, or I’ll never have a job where I can be a success, a grounding practice can help bring you to the present moment and back on track.
To ground yourself you might:
Watch an episode of a favorite comedy show. Feel the weight and texture of the paper and pen as you journal. Whatever you do, each of these quick exercises below can help ground you.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1
I want to share one more valuable exercise with you before you go. This is the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Grounding Exercise.
Start by taking a few deep breaths to center yourself, and bring your attention to your surroundings. You’ll then follow these five steps.
FIVE. Notice and name 5 things you see around you in your immediate environment.
FOUR. Notice and name 4 things you can touch around you and reach out and touch
those items.
THREE. Notice and name 3 things you hear. This could be any external sound outside of your body or even one that originates from inside your body (like your tummy rumbling).
TWO. Notice and name 2 things you can smell.
ONE. Notice and name 1 thing you can taste. What does the inside of your mouth taste like? You can also place a small piece of food, a mint, or gum in your mouth and savor the flavor.
Grounding exercises like these don’t take long, but they can have a profound effect on your ability to tolerate and manage stressful feelings.
Give them a go and let me know how it goes.
Groundedly yours,
Judy
领英推荐
Three minute guided meditation
This is my Three Minute Guided Mediation with “Cue Words”. This is an easy to follow guided meditation for beginners, kids, and busy people who want a mindfulness meditation exercise that is quick and effective!
Cue Words Meditation is a new, easy way to relax and be mindful. Cue words meditation can be a great way to get to a more zen state, through repeating certain specific words throughout the meditation practice.
In this meditation, I use the words "breathe" and “relax,” but you can use anything you’d like, such as “confidence,” “joy,” “peace,” and so on. If you haven’t tried one of my 3 minute meditations, you should! It is easy as pie to follow along with me and you’ll notice a big difference in just a few minutes. I try to switch up different types of guided practices so you can find the ones that work best for you, and build your own meditation toolbox!
I’m so excited to share that I’ve launched a brand new podcast, which you can listen to in Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube!
My podcast is called Mental Health Bites with Dr. Judy. In just 10 minutes, we dive into a hot topic, answer your burning questions, and leave you with a practical tip to improve your mental wellness. ??
I created this podcast for people who love to learn and improve themselves, but find they don’t have the time to listen to an entire podcast from beginning to end. Mental Health Bites is designed to be consumable while you’re on the go - you can get all the wellness information you need in just 10 minutes!
Here's where you can check out the podcast:
Order my book here: https://bit.ly/3MvuvvF
About me:
Dr. Judy Ho, Ph. D., ABPP, ABPdN is a triple board certified and licensed Clinical and Forensic Neuropsychologist, a tenured Associate Professor at Pepperdine University, television and podcast host, and author of Stop Self-Sabotage.?An avid researcher and a two-time recipient of the National Institute of Mental Health Services Research Award, Dr. Judy maintains a private practice where she specializes in comprehensive neuropsychological evaluations and expert witness work. She is often called on by the media as an expert psychologist and is also a sought after public speaker for universities, businesses, and organizations.
Dr. Judy received her bachelor's degrees in Psychology and Business Administration from UC Berkeley, and her masters and doctorate from SDSU/UCSD Joint Doctoral Program in Clinical Psychology. She completed a National Institute of Mental Health sponsored fellowship at UCLA's Semel Institute.