A calming technique for anxious moments

Have you ever stepped up to do a presentation and found that your mouth goes dry, you are literally shaking with fear, and you feel sick? Have you ever been in a situation where your negative emotions have sabotaged you? Do you often feel anxious at work or in other social situations? Do you feel that your inner dialogue stops you from noticing what is going on or prevents you from really listening to another person?

This is a simple technique that may help you get back to a calm centre within a few minutes. It is sometimes used in training to help people stay calm and focused. It may also help calm nerves and support you in moving out of difficult emotions more quickly.

How does this work? Going into peripheral vision may help engage the part of your nervous system associated with calming down, slowing down and letting your mind, body and emotions come back into balance.

The technique is called peripheral vision.

Find a spot where you can comfortably look across the room you are in. It could be a small object, picture or mark on the wall.

Get comfortable and relax, sitting down with both feet on the floor.

Focus your attention on the object across the room. Just fix your eyes on that spot. As you focus on the spot, expand your vision and awareness to either side of you. You need to keep looking at the spot, but start to expand your vision so that you are also taking in what is on either side of you.

Keep doing this for a minute or so, and then start to expand your vision so that you are also looking at the space above and below the object you are focusing on.

You are now in peripheral vision. Try to notice all the things that are in your vision while looking at the spot or object across from you. Continue to open up your awareness to see more things in your peripheral vision.

And you can take your awareness even further around behind you than that, all the way round, 360 degrees. Of course, I’m not suggesting that you can see behind you, but you can use your sense of hearing or spatial awareness to be aware of what’s behind you as well.

Once you have gained your centre, you can relax your vision and start to notice the state you are in. Many people report that they feel calmer and more centred.

With practice, you may find that you can go into peripheral vision whenever you need to bring your emotional state back to a calmer, more centred one.