One of the most effective techniques in mindfulness and trauma therapy\u2014suitable for restlessness, repetitive thoughts, or anxiety\u2014is the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise. It helps us anchor ourselves in the present and gain impulse control. As simple as it is, it has a wide range of applications for helping us feel at home in the \u201chere and now.\u201d To do it, you start by counting five things you see, then five sounds you hear, and finally five sensations you feel. This could be the pressure of your seat, but also a feeling that arises. Then count four things, preferably new ones, that you see, hear, and feel. Continue the exercise with three and two until you see, hear, and feel only one thing. The exercise is done with the head, but it aims at the heart. Experiencing what is there allows the heart to grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Faust<\/em>\u2019s Prologue in Heaven, God the Father limits Mephistopheles’ access: \u201cAs long as he remains alive \/ Nothing you wish shall be prohibited.\u201d But a little later, Mephisto makes a pact with Faust based on the potential afterlife gain. Is it evil not to hear what one does not want to hear? Then it is good to want to hear. This is what the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise encourages. This attention arithmetic not only alleviates fear, anxiety, and trauma, but it also makes evil disappear because, unlike Mephisto, we learn to hear, see, and feel everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Translation <\/strong>Laura Liska One of the most effective techniques in mindfulness and trauma therapy\u2014suitable for restlessness, repetitive thoughts, or anxiety\u2014is the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise. It helps us anchor ourselves in the present and gain impulse control. As simple as it is, it has a wide range of applications for helping us feel at home in the \u201chere and now.\u201d To do it, you start by counting five things you see, then five sounds you hear, and finally five sensations you feel. This could be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9159,"featured_media":68384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8796,9115,9255],"tags":[11717,11718,8819],"class_list":["post-68662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-column","category-consciousness","category-faust-en","tag-ausgabe-43-2025-en","tag-english-issue-45-2025","tag-seeds"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9159"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\n\n\n
Image <\/strong>Faust<\/em> 2025. Photo: Laura Pfaehler<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"