Hi this is Katherine Cook-Otonne,
Author of Embodiment and the Treatment of Eating Disorders,
The Body as a Resource in Recovery.
I'm reading from script 9.
4 Riding the Wave of Arousal.
Find a comfortable seat and ground your feet on the floor and your sitting bones on the chair.
And here begin to breathe.
Breathing in and gently breathing out.
If it feels okay for you close your eyes or soften your gaze.
And you're still breathing in and you're still breathing out.
Next follow these steps to begin to ride the wave of arousal.
Step 1 see if you can locate the sensations related to the arousal or urge in your body.
If they are in more than one spot focus where they are the strongest.
Breathe while you locate and identify the urge or sense of arousal in your body.
Step 2 try to describe the feelings or sensations.
Is it big or small?
Are the sensations big or small?
Does the feeling or the sensations have a sense of constricting or expanding?
Do you notice coolness or warmth?
Simply notice and describe to yourself what you notice.
Step 3 as a little reprieve bring your awareness back to your breath and notice your breath moving in and out of your body.
Do this for a few breaths.
Just breathing in and just breathing out.
Breathing in and breathing out.
Breathing in and breathing out.
When you are ready turn back to where you feel the arousal or urge.
Step 4 tune in to the feelings and imagine that these feelings or the urge is a wave.
Researchers have studied arousal and urges and they have found that they arise and pass just like waves rolling on the beach.
If we try to fight the wave it can crash down on us and it can be exhausting trying to out running waves over and over.
Instead imagine that you are a surfer riding on top of the wave as it arises and passes.
Bliding on top not fighting not trying to outrun it just surfing it.
Step 5 if you need extra support find something physical you can touch to further ground yourself in this moment and breathe letting the wave get big and watching it beak and then letting it pass.
Breathe.
Step 6 when the arousal or urge has passed acknowledge your hard work.
It also might be helpful to record the arousal or urge in your journal.
You might want to notice how long it lasts where you felt it and how strong the peak was.
Where it was mild manageable a one and if it was ten and really really hard and big the most severe mark it a ten.
And now here take a deep breath in and a big breath out a big breath in a big breath out.
Wonderful.
Thank you for practicing.
