The Observatory5-4-3-2-1: come back to the present
An emergency tool for moments when your thoughts are racing. Anchor yourself in what is around you.
How it works
This is a tool for moments when worry runs away with you and your head fills with what could go wrong. We don't do anything about the thoughts. We just move attention to where you actually are: here, in the room, in this …
Session in 8 steps, about 5 minutes. Doing it is part of Premium, which you try free for 7 days with no card. With Premium your answers are saved so you can pick up where you left off and look back at what you wrote.
Try PremiumThe rest of the text and the exercise are part of Premium. You try everything for 7 days with no card, and can cancel whenever you like. Sign in if you already have an account.
Why does it work?
Sensory grounding (directing attention to sight, hearing and touch) is clinical standard for anxiety and dissociation and is part of established treatment manuals. But the counting routine 5-4-3-2-1 itself is established practice rather than a separately studied method. The mechanism is shifting attention: the brain cannot catastrophize and inventory the room at the same time.
Account, your first assessment with the hexagon and one new measurement every quarter are free. The rest is part of Premium: SEK 99 a month or SEK 699 a year, VAT included.
Read more
Worry time
Stop worrying a little all day long. Gather the worry into one fixed, limited stretch of time and sort it there.
Exercise12 minPut the thought on trial
A painful thought often feels like a truth. Here you examine it, calmly and methodically.
Session7 minExamine a thought
Take a thought that weighs on you and examine it as a hypothesis: what speaks for it, what speaks against it, and what a more accurate version would say.