In the first module, the focus is on recognizing your internal experience without judgement. Get started with the introduction video below!

Introduction

Exercise 1: Facing the Current Situation

To begin building the skill of recognizing, let’s start by examining what brought you here.  Use the worksheet below to further explore your unwanted internal experiences and the impacts of your response.

Fight – Flight – Freeze Response

Next, let’s recognize our body’s natural response to stress, the fight-flight-freeze or FFF response. Check out the video below  to learn more about how and why our body reacts to stress. .

Exercise 2: Self-Care

Just as stress can be cumulative and contribute to our FFF response, self-care is also cumulative and can help us to prevent it. How are you taking care of yourself? Use the self-care assessment below to check how well you are doing and get some ideas for improvement.

Your New Superpower: Mindfulness

Let’s take a look at a skill called mindfulness that we can harness as our superpower. Mindfulness helps us practice recognizing our present moment experience and gain more control over where we focus our attention. The video below will introduce you to this skill and begin to examine why and how it can be your new superpower.

Exercise 3: Breathing Space Meditation

Now that we’ve learned a bit about mindfulness, let’s practice! This meditation is designed to help build the skill of recognition or noticing. You may have a strong reaction to this exercise, or no reaction at all. That’s okay! Everyone experiences it differently. Strong reactions are not wrong or problematic, they are a sign that it’s time to really pay attention and recognize your experience. Not having any reactions okay too. Remember, it will take some time to build these skills. 

Expect to feel uncomfortable. As simple as these exercises appear on the surface, they can be very hard. If it ever feels like too much, feel free to stop the exercise. 

Listen to the guided meditation provided below and use the journal page provided to reflect on your experience.

Wrap-Up

*Content has been adapted with permission from Cal Poly Counseling Services and Eastern Carolina University Counseling & Student Development