5 Senses Practice: Come Back to Your Senses, Come Back to Yourself
The 5 Senses Practice is a quick, powerful grounding technique that uses your sensory awareness to interrupt stress loops and bring you back to the present moment. When your mind is racing, emotions are overwhelming, or you’re feeling disconnected, tuning into your senses shifts you out of mental overdrive and back into your body—fast.
This technique is rooted in bottom-up regulation, meaning it starts with sensory input to signal safety to the brain. Studies show that grounding practices like this can reduce anxiety by up to 30%, improve emotional regulation, and activate the parasympathetic nervous system within minutes (Luberto et al., 2020; Garland et al., 2015).
How to Practice the 5 Senses Grounding Technique (2–3 minutes):
5 things you can see
Look around. Name five things—colors, shapes, shadows, textures. Let your eyes linger.4 things you can touch
Notice the feel of your clothes, the ground under your feet, the air on your skin.3 things you can hear
Let sounds come to you—distant or close. Just notice without judging.2 things you can smell
Take a deep breath. Can you smell coffee? Soap? The air?1 thing you can taste
What’s lingering on your tongue? Water? Mint? Just notice.
You can also use this practice on the fly—just pick one or two senses to check in with during a stressful moment.
Why it works: This practice engages the here and now network in the brain and interrupts the fight-or-flight cascade. It’s a portable, repeatable, and body-based reset—perfect for chaotic shifts, critical calls, or decompressing at the end of the day.
Use this when you, someone you love, or someone on a call:
Feels overwhelmed, anxious, or like they’re “not in their body”
Is dissociating, zoning out, or having trouble staying present
Just experienced feeling disconnected throughout the day
Is spiraling with racing thoughts or emotional overload
Needs to reconnect with the here and now after a stressful call or conversation