Hey peeps! 
I was recently lucky enough to attend a professional development workshop through my work. It was hosted by an excellent youth psychologist who spoke to us about different techniques to dealing with anxiety, depressive thoughts and trauma.
One technique which has really stuck in my mind was one called "Self-soothing with the 5 senses". After hearing and reading about it I realised that a lot of us probably do it without even realising it. It’s basically the method of smelling, listening to, touching, tasting or looking at something that reminds you of a specific time when you felt calm and happy.
For me “smell” is the most effective. My favourite example being the smell of horse feed which takes me back to when I was younger and my dad and I used to feed his horses together, this was a time long before my parents split up and things got more complicated.
Another is the smell of freshly baked banana bread and peppermint tea- a more recently lost tradition I had with one of my closest friends before she had to move away.
Random cute unrelated fact: When I’m really missing her I’ll send her a photo of my tea on snapchat and 9 times out of 10 she’ll send me one back exactly the same because we always seem to be doing the same things at the same time even though she’s hours away from me.
Wondering who else uses their 5 senses in this way to calm themselves down and if you do, what are your favourite examples?
I have to say that I'm more with @Fearocite and use my mind to help me, rather than something physical.
I do sometimes use touch though, like holding onto something, squeezing it between my fingers (I should really get some kinetic sand...)
@Whix it's great that you can use touch to help ground yourself. Do you use any other strategies to help?
