ᗪꫀׁׅܻғ☯ 's Key Ideas from Stop Overthinking
by Nick Trenton

Here is how the 5-4-3-2-1 method works:

Slowly count down from five to one. As you count down, use each number as a cue to engage one of your five senses.

• Five – look at five objects in your environment.
• Four – hear four distinct sounds.
• Three – feel three sensations.
• Two – detect two smells.
• One – identify one taste.

Think of consciousness as a ball of awareness that moves in and out of your body. When you’re lost in thought, your ball of awareness hovers inside your mind, bouncing around like a pinball with all the what-ifs scenarios you’re thinking of

“What if this happens? What if that happens? What if I’d done things differently?”.

If you take a second to notice the fine details of an object in your environment, like the lines and colors of your wood desk, your ball of awareness leaves your mind and hovers over the desk.

By performing the 5-4-3-2-1 method, you keep your ball of awareness outside of your head long enough to lower your anxiety and regain a sense of control.

Behind every ‘overthinking episode’ is a debilitating belief. For example, if your mind is racing before a presentation, you must believe you are unprepared and will bomb.