Big Summer

by Jennifer Weiner

Name five things you can see. My mother. My father. The dining room table. The newspaper. The banana bread. Name four things you can touch. The skin of my arm. The fabric of the dining room chair cover. The wood of the kitchen table, the floor beneath my feet. The three things I could hear were the sound of cars on Riverside Drive, the scratch of my father’s pen on the page, and my own heartbeat, still thundering in my ears. I could smell banana bread and my own acrid, anxious sweat.

This is an actual technique that I was taught by an actual therapist (and, after BIG SUMMER was published, I learned that it’s being taught in schools, in yoga classes, just about everywhere!) It’s a way of centering yourself, putting yourself back in the here and now if you’re panicking or freaking out or worrying about the future or dwelling on the past. Feel your feet on the floor, listen to whatever you can hear. Notice the world around you, and it’s guaranteed to calm you down. Try it the next time you need a little zen!