Guide
What to do when an urge hits
A five-step sequence for the next ten minutes, in the order to do them, for the moment reading is not enough.
- Basis
- A practice
- Reading time
- 1 min read
- Last updated
- Updated
You are in it now, so this is short.
- Stand up and leave the room you are in. The body first.
- Put the phone down somewhere you have to walk to. If you are reading this on it, that is fine: go to the Right now page, start the timer, and put the phone face down while it runs.
- Breathe four in, six out, for ninety seconds. Count them.
- Drink a glass of water. Cold, if there is cold.
- Do the next ordinary thing: dishes, a walk, a message to a friend about nothing.
The urge will still be there, smaller. That is what passing feels like. It is not the absence of the urge; it is the urge no longer being in charge.