As adults we have often experienced many forms of stress, anxiety or perhaps trauma, which results in our emotional brain working overtime, on overthinking and feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes you might feel completely out of control and like there is chaos coming from every direction.
Containment exercises are a form of self-holding that helps you to reclaim some control and a sense of containment and safety during the chaos. They help you regain a sense of power and an ability to settle and ease the internal dialogue. Containment exercises remind our body that it has edges and a field, and that the sensations, feelings and emotions are contained in its parameters. Once we are able to get out of our head and back into our body, we can activate the parasympathetic nervous system or our calming down system.
When we can physically assist our body to feel safe then we can quiet the chaos or at least move to a place where it is not overwhelming us anymore. When doing a containment exercise, your job is to sink into the sensations that are moving through your body, just noticing, sensing, feeling; not exerting any energy to change or shift them. You may get a sense of the shape, colour or energy of these sensations, or you may simply notice and name the feelings as they come and go.
Have a go at all of the containment exercises and see which one works for you …feeling the sensations, energy, thoughts as they move between your hands, simply noticing, naming and letting them go. Do each exercise for 1 minute to see which one feels right for you…
- Placing a hand on each side of your head over your ears.
- Placing one hand on your forehead and the other on the back of your head.
- Place one hand on your forehead and the other on your heart.
- Place one hand on your heart and the other on your stomach.
- Place one hand in the middle of your chest and the other on the base of your skull.
Whether you are at work, lying in bed or walking around, you can use the containment hand positions to remind you to get back in your body, slow your breathwork and let yourself know that you are safe and remember to “notice – feel – name – let go”.