Laurel guides you through a quick, accessible mindfulness exercise for when you're feeling stressed, overwhelmed, or panicked.

Transcript Below

“Hi i'm Laurel. I’m a licensed therapist, and today I wanted to share with you a quick 30 to 60-second way to help yourself calm down. And you can do this anywhere, anytime that you need…to just kind of shift the gears down a little bit. Whether you're anxious or just really excited, this is a quick, easy, free way.

So i want you to imagine that there's a beam of light, but it's actually more like a bar of light (you know, like those scanners at the grocery store that are red). I want you to imagine a big one of those, except I want it to be kind of a golden-white light, and I want you to just imagine that that is scanning down your body from head to toe very slowly.

So start at the top of your head, and then as the light slowly scans down to your eyebrows and your eyes, your ears…just imagine that your body starts to fill up with that light. And it keeps going down, past your mouth, your chin, down your neck, to your shoulders. Just let that light beam scan down you[r body] and feel yourself slowly start to calm, and quiet…till at the end you're left feeling better.

And then enjoy that, and you can go right back out into your life.

If you liked this exercise, and you'd like to do more of that and incorporate some mindfulness into your life—maybe manage some anxiety, stress, or a big transition in your life—you can get in touch with me on my website at laureltherapy.net.”