Guided Meditation for Anxiety: Five Sense Grounding
Anxiety Therapist Shares Five Sense Guided Meditation
“I feel like my brain is floating in space, I am so overwhelmed, I have no focus” Have you ever had these types of thoughts? Something similar? A great way to feel more grounded is through mindfulness and meditation practices.
As an Anxiety Therapist in Orlando, I see many clients who benefit from practicing daily guided meditations.
One of the practices I teach my clients that are struggling with anxiety is the Five Sense Grounding Meditation.
If this is your first time practicing guided meditation I recommend reading the New York Times Article, How to Mediate. It does a great job of offering great tips for getting started on your mediation journey.
Now, please feel free to listen to this practice now, download it for later, or read the meditation script. This guided meditation practice helps to calm anxiety and restore a felt sense of safety in the body, mind, and emotions.
Anxiety Therapist Shares Guided Meditation Practice for Anxiety
Guided Meditation Script for Anxiety
Hello and welcome to this guided meditation practice to help soothe anxiety. My name is Lauran Hahn and I’m a licensed mental health counselor in Orlando, Florida. I have a series of guided meditation practices to help soothe anxiety. In this one, we will use our five senses to help anchor us when we are filled with anxious thoughts, body sensations, or emotions.
So… go ahead and settle yourself in a quiet location free of distractions…
And we’ll start by just noticing the breath…not really doing anything to change the breathing…just putting our attention, our focus on the breath. Noticing the natural inhale… and exhale… as your breath enters… and leaves the body.
So we’ll start this Five Sense mediation with the sense of touch. So I want you to notice how your body is supported by whatever you’re sitting on. Whether you’re on the ground…the meditation cushion…couch or chair... just notice how your body makes contact with whatever is supporting you right now.
Next…I’m going to have you bring awareness to your feet…and how your feet are making contact with the ground… and if you’re wearing shoes or socks just notice your feet inside the shoes or socks… just bringing your awareness to the subtleties of the shoes and socks on your feet.
Now I’d like you to bring your awareness to your clothing… and just become aware of how your clothing is resting on your body… and you might even just take your hand and rub it across your shorts or pants, or your shirt just to notice the texture of your clothing… just really allowing yourself to notice your clothing and noticing the texture.
Next, bring your awareness to how on your inhales and exhales… the clothing moves on your body…just really allowing yourself to notice t that very subtle movement.
Next, we’ll bring our awareness to the sense of sound. So what I’d like you to do now is just notice any sounds that you hear outside of the building you’re in… you might not notice any and that’s fine… just either way…see if you can bring your awareness to the sounds outside of the building.
Next I’d like you to bring your awareness to the sounds inside the building… you might notice the AC… or if you’re at work or at home with other people you may hear a conversation or subtle noises. Just bring your awareness to any of the sounds you hear inside of the building
And next I’d like you to bring your awareness to the absence of sound… so just the space between any obvious sounds that you hear…
Next, I’d like you to bring your awareness to your sense of smell. Now with this one…you might notice the subtle scent of something… or you may notice the absence of any scent…and either way, just notice and be aware of what is happening within your sense of smell…
And another grounding tool you can use is allowing yourself to smell things that are… that smell nice to you like lavender, or jasmine, or vanilla, or coconut…that would be intentionally bringing a scent in that you like to smell.
Next, let’s bring our awareness to the sense of taste...and similar to smell it might be that you notice a sense of taste or it might be that you notice the absence of a taste…and either way it’s just fine… Just bring your awareness there…and while we’re here…. Watching our noticing the sense of taste…one thing you can do is intentionally bring water to your mouth because that sends a signal to your nervous system that you’re in the rest and digest mode…so its calming… so see if you can intentionally bring water to your mouth or make your mouth salivate.
And lastly, we’ll tune in to the sense of sight. And what I’d like you to do is just look around the room where you are and I’d like you to identify five colors that are either neutral or in some ways pleasing to you…
Next, I’d like you to identify three different surfaces that have different textures…you might notice the flat and smooth wall… a blanket that’s kind of ruffled up…or the flat smooth surface of a glass of water…just notice different textures.
And finally with a sense of sight… I’d like you to notice different…three different shapes…just look around the room and notice different shapes that you see…
So we have traveled through the five senses in this guided mindfulness and meditation practice to help soothe anxiety and we’ll close our practice with three inhales and exhales….
So inhaling…1,2,3,4
Exhaling…1,2,3,4
Inhaling…1,2,3,4
Exhaling…1,2,3,4
Inhaling…1,2,3,4
Exhaling…1,2,3,4
Ready to Start Anxiety Therapy in Orlando, FL?
Our therapists at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando are here to help you if you have been struggling with anxiety and provide you with tools to help you feel grounded again. To get started with one of our anxiety counselors reach out to our Client Care Coordinator and schedule a free 15-minute, so we can get you started with anxiety therapy right away.
Not Quite Ready for Anxiety Therapy?
Our highly trained team will help you gain tools that will help you overcome any anxiety you may be feeling. If you’re not ready to get started, we understand. In the meantime, feel free to read the articles below or listen to the Guided Meditations.
Additional Anxiety Resources
Anxiety Therapy Orlando: Digital Wellness
Decision-Making Anxiety? Anxiety Therapist Shares 5 Steps to Make Decisions Easier
An Anxiety Therapist Explains: What is High-Functioning Anxiety?
51 Grounding Techniques to Help You Feel Grounded Now
How to Deal with Stress and Anxiety During Stressful Times
Other Therapy Services Offered at Mindful Living Counseling in Orlando, FL
Therapists at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando understand that anxiety may just be one of the challenges you may struggle with. We offer a variety of therapy services. Our therapy services include Trauma therapy, EMDR therapy, Eating Disorder Therapy, Toxic Relationship Therapy, and Teen Therapy. We also offer Guided Meditations for you to enjoy. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
About the Owner of Mindful Living Counseling
As an Orlando Therapist, Lauran Hahn, LMHC, specializes in working with clients that are dealing with anxiety, toxic relationships, and trauma. She strives to help her clients feel relaxed in their bodies, have peace in their minds, and be connected in relationships. Lauran has been recording guided meditations to help others as meditation practice helps to calm anxiety in a natural way. She feels the most grounded when she is journaling early in the morning, running, or practicing daily mediations.
