Audio grounding & self-compassion exercise Press play and read along, or close your eyes and just listen. It runs about six minutes with pauses. There is nothing to get right — if your attention wanders, that is the exercise working, not failing.
Use headphones if you have them, and stay somewhere you can sit still. Don't listen while driving. If you feel worse rather than calmer, stop and see crisis support .
Read along Select any line to start the audio from there.
Settle You can stop this at any time. Nothing here is a test. Let your shoulders drop a little, and let the chair or the floor hold your weight. Breath Breathe in through your nose while I count to four. One. Two. Three. Four. Now let it out slowly through your mouth, longer than you took it in. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One. Breath Again. In, two, three, four. And out, slowly, all the way to the end of the breath. The long exhale is what tells your body it is allowed to stand down. Five things Now look around the room without moving much. Find five things you can see. Say them in your head as you find them. A colour. An edge. A shape. Something small you have never really looked at before. Four things Find four things you can feel. Fabric against your skin. The temperature of the air. Your feet inside your shoes. The weight of your own hands. Three things Now three things you can hear. Let them be ordinary. Traffic. A fridge. Your own breathing. You do not have to like the sounds. You only have to notice them. Two, one Two things you can smell, or two smells you remember well. And one thing you can taste. That is your body reporting back that you are here, in this room, in this hour. Not back there. Orient Say the date to yourself. Say where you are. Say your own name. Whatever happened, it is not happening in this room right now. Kindness Now put one hand somewhere that feels steady. Your chest, your upper arm, or your lap. Let it rest there with a little warmth, the way you would touch someone you cared about. Kindness And say this quietly, out loud or inside: This really hurts. This is a moment of pain. Pain like this is part of being a person who loved someone. Kindness May I be kind to myself right now. May I give myself what I need. I do not have to understand it all today. I do not have to forgive anyone today. I only have to get through today. No blame If your mind starts building the case against you again, listing what you should have seen or said, notice it and let it be. You were not naive for trusting someone. Trust was the reasonable response to what you were shown. Return Take one more slow breath. Wiggle your fingers. Look at one thing across the room and let your eyes stay there. When you are ready, come back to the page. Nothing more is being asked of you today.