🌸 Creative Self-Care: 5-4-3-2-1 Stress Reduction Technique
Focusing On Your 5 Senses to Provide A Balancing Pause
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🌸 Creative Self-Care
The Creative Self-Care series is a section of the Emily Lupita ❤️🔥 Creativity Series that features illustrated activities to promote creativity + wellness, plus provides links to three things I love online this week.
The 5-4-3-2-1 Stress Reduction Technique
Today’s creative self-care activity is to make our own “5-4-3-2-1 Stress Reduction Technique” sketch.
This technique is a grounding exercise to help us pay deliberate attention to our five senses. Focusing in on our 5 senses will help us be more grounded in the present moment and less inclined toward following any racing thoughts in our head.
Above is a pie graph I made to show this stress reduction technique in sequence. Simply follow the arrows around and name the following items aloud:
5 things you see
4 emotions you feel
3 sounds you hear
2 scents you smell
1 thing you taste
By switching our attention to this naming exercise as soon as we feel a major stressor, we can use our 5 senses to give us a balancing pause. During this pause, we can re-center ourselves and move on with our day.
Let’s use this ⬆️ black & white blank version of a person and five circles. Grab a few colored pencils, your watercolors, some markers, highlighters…whatever you have within easy reach. Or use your phone / tablet’s “mark up” to digitally color.
What five objects could serve as symbols for the five senses? Draw yourself observing those five objects.
Create a scene that feels calm and add in colors that evoke feelings of peace, tranquility, motivation…however you want to feel when viewing your drawing.
Feel free to draw yourself or someone else…maybe your pet…whatever feels best.
☀️ Share your thoughts on this activity in the comments.
Lupita Illustration
This is the illustration I designed from today’s activity.
Lupita turns to look out over the mountain. She takes in the beautiful view and pauses to notice her 5 senses. She tastes her morning coffee and smells the fresh grass. She hears the wind in the distant trees and feels the breeze on her face. She is calm as she watches the hot air balloons float off toward the horizon.
🙋🏻♀️What I’m Reading & Watching
This video about self care by the National Black Leadership Commission on Health.
Oprah Winfrey speaking about self-care with the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
“Heartbeats” by José Gabriel González. He’s a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Good journey,
❤️🔥Emily Lupita
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