Acknowledgement and Dedication: Thank you Aunty Yvonne for teaching me this essential health-hack.

About a year ago, I started to experience mild panic attacks, something very new and alien to me. I would find my heart racing all of a sudden, experience palpitations at times and experience a feeling of nervousness that would be compounded by this overall alien ill-feeling. My Aunt told me about the five senses exercise and it made a huge difference, I decided it was worth making it a daily practice. Try it out for yourself if you haven’t already and see how you feel.

Here’s what you do. When you wake up, first thing in the morning, while still lying in bed:

1. First observe and make a mental note of 5 things that you see around you.
2. Make a mental note of 4 things you feel around you.
3. Make a mental note of 3 things you hear.
4. Notice 2 things you smell around you.
5. Make a mental note of 1 thing you can taste.

As you progress practicing this, you could elaborate on it a bit more and try to make a mental note of things you haven’t noticed before or usually go unnoticed. You could do this exercise through the day even, and appreciate different experiences of your environment at different times of the day. Perhaps use it as an exercise before turning in for the night.