Mindfulness of sounds can be a wonderful skill to practice when it comes to coping with your PTSD symptoms. People with PTSD may sometimes feel distracted by their thoughts and feelings. As a result, they may find that they have a hard time focusing attention on what matters most in their life, such as relationships with family and friends or other activities that they used to enjoy.
This mindfulness exercise, mindfulness of sounds, may help you get in touch with your present moment environment, provide you with some distance from unpleasant thoughts, as well as improve non-judgmental observation.
Find a comfortable position either lying on you back or sitting. If you are sitting down, make sure that you keep you back straight and release the tension in your shoulders (let them drop).
Close your eyes.
Begin by focusing your attention on your breathing. Simply pay attention to what it feels like in your body to slowly breathe in and out. Spend a few minutes focusing your attention on the full experience of breathing. Immerse yourself completely in this experience. Imagine you are "riding the waves" of your own breathing.
Once you have spent some time focusing on your breathing, shift your awareness to your ears. Then, allow this awareness to expand from your ears and become aware of and open to all the sounds in your environment.
Practice simply being open to all sounds where ever they arise. Do not go searching for sounds or holding on to the experience of certain sounds. Instead, just practice having an expansive awareness of all the sounds around you -- sounds that are close, sounds that are far away, sounds that are soft, and sounds that are loud.
Practice connecting with the sounds. Notice if you are labeling the sounds that you hear (for example, the "tick-tock" I hear is from the clock on my wall). If you are labeling the sounds you hear, recognize this and then recommit to connecting with the experience of hearing and the quality of the sound (for example, how loud it is or how long it lasts).
Anytime that you notice that you are getting distracted by a thought (this is completely normal), notice what took you away from the present moment and bring your attention back to the sounds in your environment.
After a few minutes, shift your attention back to your breathing. When you are ready, open your eyes.
Before you try this exercise, it may be useful to first practice mindful awareness of your breathing.
This mindfulness exercise can also be paired with other mindfulness exercises, such as mindfulness of thoughts.
Make this a habit. Practice everyday.
Source:
Segal, Z.V., Williams, T.M.G., & Teasdale, J.D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York, NY: Guilford Press.
