This is a guided 15-minute YouTube meditation by Danielle Jhiani (an anxiety and OCD recovery coach) teaching an emotional exposure exercise to sit with and observe uncomfortable bodily sensations without judgment. The practice: get comfortable, close your eyes, take deep breaths, do a head-to-toe body scan to locate the strongest physical feeling, adopt an observer stance, notice thoughts without engaging (ERP framing), use breath to reset if caught in rumination, and slowly return to the present—sensations tend to fade with repeated non-engagement though timing varies.
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Foreign.
Welcome.
My name is Danielle. I'm an anxiety and OCD recovery coach. And this is a video to help you with dealing with the anxiety that comes whether you know what the thoughts are or not. This is going to be really helpful. And I call this an emotional exposure exercise. And so you can use this really with any emotion, but it's very helpful with anxiety, and I use it with.
A lot of my clients a little.
Bit further into the ERP process, but.
It can be used anytime.
And what we're going to do in this video is learn to sit with discomfort. And so this is very similar to a meditation. Our emotions actually sit in our body. And what we're going to do is we're going to start to get a little more comfortable with this. So let's get started.
What I want you to do is get comfortable. You can either sit or lie down.
I want you to close your eyes.
And I want you to take a couple of really deep breaths.
What this is going to do is relax your body a little bit and your mind.
And what I'm going to have you do is just do a quick body scan. And you're just going to scan your body and look for the feelings. What are you feeling in your body? Where are you feeling it? And this is going to be different for everybody. There's no right or wrong answer.
You can scan from head to toe or from your toes up to your head, but just look for the strongest feeling. It might be a tightness in your chest. It might be an unease in your stomach. It might be a tenseness in your jaw.
It could be anywhere in the body.
It's going to be different for everybody.
Find that feel.
And just kind of describe to yourself what it is.
And now what we're going to do.
Is we're going to become the observer.
You are going to expose yourself to this feeling by just noticing it.
You're going to observe this feeling without judgment.
Without trying to change it.
You're just going to notice it.
Now as you're observing this feeling, whether you have OCD or not. It's very common for the thoughts to start to show up and want you to engage.
As much as you can. Try not to engage with these thoughts when they show up. Don't push them away or try to get rid of them.
Just notice that they want you to engage and let them pass on by.
Your only job is to continue to observe that feeling in your body without judgment.
It's also very common to get caught up in the thoughts even when you're trying your best not to, and that's okay.
Some days are going to be easier than others.
But when you get caught up in any of the thoughts, you're just going to have the awareness that you're caught up in the thought, let it go and bring yourself back to observing or noticing that feeling in your body.
Sam.
You're just the observer.
Sitting with the feeling.
Not thinking about it, but just noticing it.
And watching it.
Rumination is common whether you have OCD or not. This is the perfect way to practice not engaging in this common OCD compulsion. Even if you have to bring yourself back every 10 seconds, the more you do it, the more you're training your brain not to engage with those thoughts.
Sam.
Some days this is easier than others.
But regardless, every time you bring yourself back to that observer position.
Observing that feeling in your body.
You'Re moving in the right direction.
You're retraining your brain to disengage from the thoughts and focusing on the present moment.
Satan. Sam.
Now just check in on that feeling in your body.
For a lot of people, that feeling has dissipated a little bit. It might feel a little less strong. Maybe it's gone away.
Either way, you want to continue observing.
Sitting with this feeling.
If it's gone, you can just practice not engaging with the thoughts.
And if it's not, continue observing.
Not.
Trying to get it to go away, but just observing it and noticing it.
You can check in with that feeling.
A lot of times that feeling will.
Have lessened or dissipated a little bit.
Just like any other exposure exercise. When you truly practice exposure without the compulsions or trying to control.
It will fade over time.
That's not our goal. Our goal is just to sit and observe it.
But when we do this, it will fade.
There's no timeline for this. It may take five minutes, it may take 30 minutes.
We're just going to observe.
If you continue to get stuck in thoughts, you can always take a deep breath or two.
Reset to noticing the feeling.
If the feeling disappears, you can focus.
On your breathing.
And letting the thoughts.
Go and not engaging with the thoughts.
Sa.
Go ahead and take a couple of deep breaths.
And when you're ready, open your eyes.
Come back into the present moment.
And that feeling in your body should.
Have faded at least some. Especially if you're not engaging in those thoughts and it may have gone away. It may not have gone away. That may not have been enough time.
For you for that feeling to go away.
But you can always do this on your own and, and focus on that feeling. In your body and if you do it long enough, sometimes it might be short, sometimes it might take a while.
It will fade away eventually.
So I would love to get your feedback on this, what you liked about it, what you didn't like, what you would want to be different. And please put that in the comments below, Let me know what you think, how it helped you, and I will be happy to do another one of these differently depending on what your requests are. So if you are still struggling with symptoms of OCD or anxiety, please check out the description box my website. You can schedule a call with me to learn more about how I can help. Or you can sign up for the Path, which is a really cost effective membership for those struggling with ocd, or sign up for one on one coaching with me. I hope you have a great day.
