I'm a yoga and awareness teacher, and the founder of Verisage. This is the third piece in a four-part May series called The Body Knows. The first two were about story and understanding. This one is just practice — something you can do while you read it.
No story this week. No explanation. Just a practice — one you can do right now, in the next five minutes, without moving from where you're sitting.
We've spent two weeks in this series talking about what happens to the body under sustained stress and why coming back into physical sensation matters. This week is about the felt experience of actually doing it — briefly, immediately, without needing the right moment.
You don't need to set time aside to begin. You just need to be willing to arrive wherever you already are.
What follows is a five-step practice. It works in sequence — each step opens something the next one can use. Read slowly. Let yourself do it as you read. There is nothing to achieve here. Just five minutes of coming back to yourself.
1
Land in the room
Without changing anything about your posture, notice five things you can physically feel right now. Not see — feel. The weight of your device. The temperature of the air on your forearms. The pressure of your seat. The texture beneath your feet. The tension — or release — across your forehead.
Name each one quietly in your mind. Weight. Cool. Pressure. Texture. Tension.
You are not somewhere else right now. You are here. This is what here feels like.
60 seconds
2
Find your breath without changing it
Place one hand on your sternum — the flat centre of your chest — and simply notice your breath as it already is. Not the breath you think you should have. The one you actually have right now.
Is it high in your chest, or low in your belly? Shallow or full? You are not fixing anything. You are reading.
The breath tells the truth about the nervous system. Whatever you find — that is information, not a problem.
60 seconds
3
Lengthen the exhale
Just the exhale. Let it extend — not forced, just unhurried, like breathing out through a small opening. Let the very end of it be empty, fully released, before the next breath comes in on its own.
Do this five times. At the end of the fifth, pause in the stillness between — the quiet space after the exhale and before the inhale.
That pause is the nervous system releasing. You just signalled safety to your own body.
90 seconds
4
Move one thing slowly
Roll your shoulders at half your normal speed — then half again. Where does the shoulder catch? Where does it release? Do three full circles each direction, then let both shoulders drop completely.
Notice where you were holding without realising it. That is the body speaking. You just listened.
60 seconds
5
Ask the one question
Eyes closed if you're able. One hand on your chest. One full slow breath — in through the nose, long out through the mouth.
Then ask, without urgency: what does my body need right now? Don't think. Just wait. Whatever arises — a word, a sensation, nothing at all — that is the right answer for today.
You have been listening for five minutes. That is not nothing. That is the beginning of everything.
60 seconds
✦
You can do this practice anywhere. At your desk before a difficult conversation. In your car before you walk into the house. In the bathroom when you need sixty seconds of something real. In bed, when the mind is already running ahead of the morning.
The more you do it, the faster the body responds. It learns that when you arrive this way, something is going to shift. It starts meeting you halfway.
Want to go deeper?
The Back in Your Body free guide includes a full seven-day somatic practice — one gentle practice a day, each building on the last. It's free, and you can start any time.
Get the free guide →
M
Monique
I'm the founder of Verisage and a Hatha yoga and awareness teacher with over a decade of practice. I work with women navigating identity-shifting life transitions — helping them come back to themselves through coaching, somatic practices, and the kind of honest conversation that actually changes things.
About Monique →