Feeling stuck in your head? Try this
There are moments when your mind just… won’t let go. You’re replaying something, overthinking, jumping from one thought to the next. And even if you want to be present, it feels like you’re somewhere else entirely.
If that’s familiar, I want to share a practice I come back to often—both personally and with coaching clients: orienting.
I first learned this at somatic school, where we began every single class with it. No matter what we were studying, we started by simply looking around the room. At first, it felt almost too simple to matter, but within a minute or two I would notice something shift—my thoughts would quiet, my shoulders would drop, and I felt more here. Not forced, just… natural.
Orienting is the act of using your eyes to take in your environment in a slow, intentional way. Not scanning or analyzing, but actually seeing what’s around you.
From a nervous system perspective, this is powerful. When you’re caught in rumination or looping thoughts, your system turns inward and your attention narrows. You’re no longer really in your environment—you’re in your head. Orienting gently brings you back out. Your eyes are directly connected to how your brain processes safety and presence, so when you let your gaze move and take things in, you’re giving your system new information: I’m here. In this space. In this moment. And your body begins to follow.
Try It
Pause and look around the room you’re in. Let your eyes move slowly, without a goal, and instead of just glancing, actually take in what you’re seeing. Notice light, color, texture, shape. If something catches your attention—something neutral or pleasant—let your eyes rest there for a few seconds and really take it in before moving on.
There’s nothing to figure out and nothing to change. The practice is simply returning to what’s in front of you.
You can do this anywhere—your home, your car, a new space, or even a place you’ve been a hundred times but never really seen. And over time, something interesting happens: you start to feel more connected to the spaces you’re in. More grounded. Less pulled away by every passing thought. Not because your mind stopped working, but because you gave your body something real to come back to.
If this resonates, this is exactly the kind of work we explore more deeply in my Nervous System Reset sessions—learning how to shift out of your head and back into your body in a way that actually sticks.
