Sensorimotor / Somatic Symptom Busting Exercise #1 

My struggle is hyperawareness of my own thoughts and mind, its like my awareness has taken me hostage.

Trying to find equanimity is a great mindfulness practice. "If the feeling you experience is pleasant, be aware without clinging. If it is uncomfortable, be aware without resistance."

Perfect timing. Thank you for this video💜

Omg there’s help out there!!!

Hey mark. Thank you. This is a very noble thing to do, making a video like this.

Wow! Thanks this helped. I had a time before I had somatic ocd to the extent that I have now. I’ve definitely been subconsciously pushing back both physical and emotional sensations

It's interesting how we teach ourselves that certain feelings are bad

Amazing video Mark, you provide absolutely outstanding information.

The other day I went outside to sit and I had this thought. If someone came outside and asked me what I was doing what would I say? And I felt compelled to come up with an answer that sounded good. Like I’m watching the birds, or feeling the sun, or I’m just thinking... and that’s when it hit me. Why do I need to be thinking? Why do I need to be doing anything? Why do all my answers have to involve me doing something to sound good? What did I really come out here to do? I came out here to just sit outside. Yes I may have watched a bird, or felt the sun, or had thoughts... and that’s ok. But i don’t NEED to be doing any of these things. I can just sit outside. We can all just sit outside. The point isn’t to come outside and not watch the birds, or feel the sun, or have thoughts. The point is that we don’t need to be doing something all the time. We can just go outside to sit and whether these things happen or not doesn’t matter. We can just go outside to sit.

Thank you for this Mark ... I always look forward to your videos.

Thank you for this. I have butterflies a lot, and especially when I'm trying to sleep or meditate, so this is really helpful to me.

This really helps with my blinking

For breathing ocd, I used buteyko breathing method, because when I became aware of my breathing I started to breathe weird and essentially hyperventilate which only fuelled the anxiety. Buteyko breathing retrains you to breathe in a healthy way and ALSO reduces anxiety.

Love your work Mark!!!!! Thank you for this :)

Well said..Im new to all this..I have acid reflux/eoe which can get into my chest and believe i have some type of ocd behavior because of this...I'm hearing my heartbeat in my head when Im just sitting around..lying in bed..and it's driving me freaking insane. I've been to the doctor...they say Im fine..but its still an everyday struggle. I'll try meditating for 5 mins without moving now!

Hi mark im 15 and been struggling with this for awhile, this video has helped me substantially. Thank you

Thank you so much Mark. I have swallowing OCD..I have it on and off for LONG stretches for many years. It’s a real tough one because we all have to swallow. I know it’s fear based. When I’ve tried to ignore it it actually makes it much worse and further stuck. In past setbacks I remember I would try to ignore it as long as possible and then calmly swallow. Eventually I would lose the fear and it would fade. For some reason this most recent setback has been very difficult…the usual tools are not working as they have in the past. I will continue to work on bringing down the fear but do you have any suggestions specifically for the need to manually swallow? (I’m not afraid of choking as some others are…it’s the fear of not being able to be natural and the fear of having to manually swallow forever).😕 I appreciate any advice!😊

I have a blinking OCD and I constantly have the urge to blink hard or roll my eyes. I can’t stop because it’s my routine and if I do try to stop, my eyes feel very dry and sting

Agenda, wants, desires, compelling feelings, values, motivation, function, pain, and reward--life necessitates inconvenience--just know, that 'wrong' is a judgment, and that discomfort just is a part of being alive. So what do you do with that? How far do you want to go? You can always go deeper. You can always find something new to learn. You can sit in an empty room for hours, listening to your heart-beat and breathing--heck--prisoners in solitary confinement have done some of that. Point is, you are reacting, it's only a matter of *what* is pushing you. Unless you self-immolate like the Buddhist monk from Vietnam, Thích Quảng Đức [died in 1963, protesting government crackdown, on them], then the rest to decide is when you're going to react. This man showed that non-reaction goes to death itself--if you take it to the core of the art and practice--so how do you distinguish what to do? Society says one thing, your mother and family and friends, might say another--so I encourage people to think for themselves with logical skills, data, and non-superstition, for we have enough faithful, blind followers in the world--and perform the work of education, training, and gaining understanding on their own. An argument takes 2, that is when you fight against your mind, as well. And the potential of a discussion starts with 1, to show the same respect they would like to receive. Yes, it's true, not everyone cares--not everyone is listening--so speak, with the uncertainty of embarrassment, forsaken by an audience, abandoned, forgotten, and make it count or don't. Nothing is guaranteed. Nothing is sacred. It just is. 'When peaceful revolution is made impossible, violence is inevitable". -- John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy “We gaze at things and lunge at them in an attempt to [understand]. . . . Confronted by our gaze, things are constantly in retreat . . . [and] the gaze of [these] things is cast back on [us].” -- Toshio Matsumoto, creator of, "Everything Visible Is Empty" [1975] -- which was I believe, said by 'the Budha' but didn't find a direct quote on it, yet.

Great video Mark!!

Hi Mark! Thanks for the video as always :) I would like to ask you a question. Acceptance helped me pretty much in the last months. I started therapy and I'm currently developing certain skills, but there is one thing that I seem to struggle with, and it has to do with intrusive thoughts. From the moment I wake up I try to live in the present moment and when thoughts come I focus back on the present moment. After some hours I get really really tired because of this process. Thousands of thoughts come and I focus back on the present moment. I do it in an aggressive way. So I thought that maybe my way of accepting thoughts is instead a compulsion and my 'focusing back on the present moment is a neutralization of thoughts'. Could you give me a hint on this topic? Thanks :)

Thank u

Hey mark. Thanks for sharing your experience. Is this the technique of letting go of control? I have somatic ocd about breathing. Not only did I breathe on my own, but I also had to analyze my breathing. Will this technique help me to put my breath in it without interference. Since I couldn't tell how normally I was breathing, even intervention was futile. This technique I have heard in meditation groups to help people improve their ability to observe the breath without control. Can it help me let go of control? It's ironic that even though I'm always in control, I don't know how to properly control it :( do I need to stop reacting in life I don't mean even if I don't sit back and practice when doing this exercise you know my ocd is saying that if i react even without doing this exercise it wont work.

How should i deal with swallowing

Hi Mark! I have a question about this exercise. I don't know what the purpose here really is. Are we trying to go against our bodies/our instincts? Personally, I found that I get frustrated while doing this kind of exercises because I always fail at them. Also, I found difficult to just be curious and not judge physical discomfort: as soon as it appears I just want it to go away D: Hope that you can answer/give me more context, Thanks.

Mark , i need to.knw the answer to this urgently nd desperatly Are there any compulsions that make u do.a certain facial grimace or move ur muscles fr example ...?! If yes. , what is it.called ? Nd any tips to treat it?

Your videos are so helpful. I am also reading your book atm. But I really have a problem with things I find challenging. I'm working on that. Trying to do 10 Minutes of meditation ever day. Which sometimes seems impossible, my mind has so many ideas why I couldn't do it 😩🙄😂😂😂

Would love to see how this applies to mental compulsions. It's very simple to just stop moving your body, even if it's difficult. With mental compulsions, I feel as though once you do them it's kind of too late... Like mental checking for example. You can easily check something as a reflex just by thinking about it, and it seems impossible to *not* check if you have the idea pop in your head.

Hello Mark can you do this exercise without doing meditation later? Because I don’t meditate yet. Thank you

Any recommended videos on how to meditate? I was doing it lying it down on the bed so there was no discomfort. Im going to do it sitting cross legged going forward. I have had somatic breathing ocd for exactly one year now

Hello. Thank you for the videos. I am experiencing some physical discomfort lately, like I need to move my fingers or hands to release tension. I have OCD but is been around 1 year that I started ERP and some months since I don't do compulsion behaviors anymore. I have been able to manage it. Lately I have had some intrusive thoughts and I have allowed myself to do some compulsion but very few times. It has been around 2 weeks since I have this need to move body parts to release tension. I have had this physical discomfort also before but this time it has become very extreme and I am not sure why. I am also finishing my master thesis soon and this year , except other reasons, has been very stressful and challenging. Can you give me a suggestion on what to read about this, or what it even is? I would really appreciate it. And thank you again for your videos. They have helped me so much.

Hello Mark, Few months ago I almost choked on some food, actually it was the gag reflex as my throat froze & that stopped the food from going in. Since then i have not been able to swallow normally, in the start it converted into a phobia & i almost could not eat any solid foods for a month. It felt like the automatic swallowing process was converted into manual one & i became hyper aware of every single swallow. The same "Somatic Symptom" happens till this day whenever i try to swallow normally my brain thinks it is something dangerous & triggers the gag reflex to stop it. This condition is called "PsuedoDysphagia or Phagophobia" (Fear of Swallowing/Choking). Many people suffer from it across the world. This is quiet debilitating disorder from which i'm suffering. Please can you tell me in detail how to apply this "Sensorimotor/Somatic Exercise" for this problem. What should be the best therapy or exercise/strategy for this particular swallowing problem. I shall be grateful to you for this. Thanks! Regards : BILAL

Mark you made this video after answering my comment! That really means a lot! So I’ve been practicing mindfulness and meditation for like a little over a week and I noticed that when I get intrusive thoughts instead of engaging in them I now try to notice them and let them come in and out but I tend to cut the thought out before it’s over. So instead on letting it come in and out smoothly it’s like I’m smacking it out of the ballpark lol but I’m definitely going to try this with the discomfort meditation.

Will meditation cure my sensori motor ocd??

Hey Mark, I love your videos, they are truly a blessing! You have helped me a lot 😊 I wanted to ask you something: Something I struggle a lot with is when I practice healthy things, for example, observing the thoughts, letting them go or trying to concentrate when I'm doing art, my mind starts thinking "WAIT, that might be a compulsion! don't do it!" and then I stop doing it and I end up following the thoughts somehow and obbsesing over them again and well...its difficult for me to find a balance 😅, I always end up believing that the healthy practices or concentration are a compulsion and I should stop practicing them 😐guess I'm scared of making a mistake...maybe, hehe, anyway, what do you think Mark? Again, thank you for the videos!🙌

Upper body pain daily i have heds autism adhd ocd diagnosed from fybromyalgia to migraine symptoms changed over decades is it the ocd from the autism

Hi, Mark I am struggling with breathing ocd . Recently i understood that my main compulsion is trying to control my breathing. For two days i try not to control it and it's feel like actually itching in my lungs. So before i developed this ocd i really enjoyed meditation. But now I'm feel like if i try meditation i will try to control my breathing and do the compulsion. When i focuse on my breathing it's become manually. So do you recommend meditation in this case. Thank you for all the content you provide. It's very helpful :)

Hey Mark, I was wondering if you could do a video on hyper awareness of being in the present. Or better known as altered sense of consciousness/fear of going crazy, I dont really know how to describe it. Like trying to be able to constantly prove you are real and Arn't going crazy by making sure you are constantly in the present and always aware of what you just saw. For example, at work, I am constantly trying to remember every single vision I have as I walk around and as I am walking around trying to think about the past to make sure I remember it correctly, I am never truly in the present. Which then causes me to freak out and constantly try to feel in the present which only causes me more and more to keep mentally reviewing everything I see and experience which then even more further removes me from feeling like reality. I was diagnosed with OCD at age 13, and am now age 19 and this current tour of OCD im on has been far more complicated and hard to understand because I cant find anything on it... what if I actually am going crazy or have something wrong with me? Sorry for such a long paragraph lmfao

I have ocd and currently hyper focusing on irritable bladder. Torn between trying the meditation and allowing the discomfort or going to the dr with hopes of getting it “fixed” What suggestions do you have?

Hey Mark I wanted to ask what you think about this. I was doing some journaling about my values and 1 of them is living a healthy lifestyle. I also have some goals to go with that value. However upon doing my journaling I was hit with a somewhat reoccurring regret of my drug use from the past.. around 5 years ago. And the thought came into my head. If you valued a healthy lifestyle you wouldn’t of done drugs. Now I know that I do indeed value a healthy lifestyle or I wouldn’t have this regret.

Hello Mark , I am obsessed with losing bowels . Every time I am away from the washrooms or nervous, my stomach starts to churn. I react in panic . I am starting to avoid going places because I feel like I will lose control of my bowels . The stomach discomfort ONLY comes when I am away from the washroom . All I can think and focus on is my stomach and what it feels like . It is like I am hyperfocused on it . How do I deal with it if the worst case scenario is losing my bowels and embarrassing myself at a meeting/public . Thank you so much !

I'm struggling a lot with my OCD right now. Mainly somatic breathing. I also get intrusive thoughts about breathing which makes it a millions times worse. I keep trying to just let them be as well but it's like my body just naturally forces it 😭

thanks Mark. where is exercise #2?

Hi mark thanks again for the video, I just wanted to ask you did you have any thoughts that cause you so much regret and you would feel so guilty about? I can’t stop thinking horrible memories that actually happpened and that make me feel so guilty I would do anything to have a time machine and redo things. Are you at piece with those events? And will I ever be at piece with these memories. They torture me and fill me with so much sadness and I can’t stand the guilt and the pain. I’m trying hard and still going to work and doing my studying, but while I’m there these thoughts still torture me. Thanks for all you do.

Have any of you been hyper aware of like your inner voice when reading things like you’re hyper aware of your mind???

Hello Mark, I have been watching you since last year. Lot of hours i have spend with your advices. The last thought that stress me is of pick a knife and stab on my eye. I watch a tv series that had a scene like that. I need to acept the thought but now i think that will happen when i am sleepwalking. What can i do ? I have been having ocd constantly with more that 5 themes over last year up today. What can I do ? Thank you

First i have tinnitus then after that somatic ocd(swallowing ocd) but i recovered from all this but now its been 2-3 days started noticing my floaters more but i noticed earlier but easily ignore it i don't know there is correlated with my ocd my floaters not increased But simply now i cant ignore it but earlier i can ignore 🥺😓

Hi Mark can you give me an advice, I'm struggling mostly on swallowing ocd, I'm really confused of what mindset should I used,some say that you should avoid swallowing at all cost(as an ERP), so Everytime I swallow I feel guilty.. some say that you just need to do it naturally, but how is naturally... But I'm thinking just to accept it and be grateful to it so that it won't cause any anxietal loops in the brain.so what do u think?

Hi Mark, please do reply, I need your help. It's a bit long story but would like to tell you. So, earlier I do used to get intrusive thoughts like my closed ones dying, and many such stuffs but I just used to recognize it as something my brain does and used to ignore. So, then one day I came across an article that said your "thoughts influence reality" and talked about law of attraction. I freaked out as I didn't want anything my brain does to happen in real. In addition to it I used to fear that if I think bad about the almighty then I'll be punished, similarly if I curse water or soil or planet then due to law of attraction something bad would happen, it was too silly but it was something my brain made up. So, I started controlling it and so the thoughts occurred more frequently and I was in a complete distress. So, I read online that it is something like OCD and the more you stop the thought they will occur more frequently so I started saying it out loud but again there was this core fear that if I will say as such then I'll be punished so then I again read a lot of articles debunking the myths of Law of Attraction and I was very much convinced and the core fear was gone and so I had no fear of cursing. Ultimately I used to lead a normal life without any fear or distress. Now, one day the thought about cursing words popped up while I was reading a book and I remembered that when I used to stop them, they used to become obsessive, and I didn't want that situation to happen again with me. So, I again read online articles and was very much convinced that I need to allow this cursing words. So,while reading whenever it used to pop instead of ignoring them I would say it intentionally, in order to show my brain that I have no problem in cursing and see I am allowing them. Otherwise they would become obsessive if I'll not welcome them.But eventually I used to say this words intentionally whole day long as the thoughts about it come to me the whole day. So, then I realized that t saying the words out intentionally are actually the compulsions and i should anyway fight with compulsions. So, then while studying I made sure I shouldn't say the curse words intentionally or in any way, my full focus used to be on the stuff that I shouldn't say the curse words as that is my compulsion and I need to fight my compulsion. So, I used to concentrate on fighting this compulsion out which ultimately was like I couldn't concentrate on other things. I used to search on each and every online portal on what I should be doing what is the correct way to think, because once they were there if I had to allow I would intentionally think about something I have no interest in and if I stop again I had to pay concentration on them. "So, whenever they used to arrive I used to fear because I had no idea of how I should actually be tackling them, as I was convinced that if I respond to them in any way they will become obsessive as I read responding them is a compulsion. and eventually again I tried controlling any of my response to them I was again in contact with them. This whole problem is going a lot more severe. Please make me understand where I am going wrong and have I misunderstood the whole concept of OCD and Compulsions,as in past I never knew about OCD and Compulsions and so there was no such problem, it was only after I read that article about thoughts , that I started to figure out what could be my compulsions and I shouldn't do that. Please help I feel like crying as there is no way out. When I read that you shouldn't control it, may be I again misinterpreted so whenever the thoughts about cursing arrived again and if I dont want to think about it like if I have no interest to think about it then again I had this fear that if I would ignore it and think about other thing which matters then again I am pushing it aside which again is a compulsion and eventually it was like be there I am no way pushing you just stay. I just don't want to perform compulsion so again eventually I had no option but to think about ii so I don't cause harm to my thought by pushing aside as otherwise it would then cause me distress. But eventually it has been five years in a row n I am still suffering. Please help.

Hello mark i have come a long way ocd wise and anxiety wise, alot to do with you, was wondering any tips for when you are just going about your day and your mind is automatically getting drained from any possible thought? Sometimes demanding an answer because what if its true?

I had ocd breathing many years it went away and never came back until I got covid as soon as I knew I had it I focused on my breathing and I felt I couldn't breathe so I was scared. Finally i recovered but i still sometimes focus and have to take deep breaths. I'm scared what if i have lingering covid effects. I think that's what feeding my fear doubting what if its covid and not ocd so it's a cycle because I think I will never get over this because of the doubt. But I'm being positive so I try not to fear it but my thing is I've heard you need tio get rid of compulsions I don't know if it's compulsions but I think mine are taking deep breaths and yawning to feel better. I can stop yawning but not taking deep breaths it's like I try hard not to take in deep breaths the more I try not to its when the urge gets stronger. 😬

Oh man I do this without having instruction to deal with bigger made up symptoms my body makes. Drift my attention to pain in my say knees meditating Japanese style lol. thanks for the reminder

I can’t stop thinking about my breathing

Hello i have breathing ocd and i cant get over.i feel like a take every breath and i have it for 3 years and its very difficult any more ideas to get over it ?

Ok this doesn't work if you're chronically ill and that is causing somatic issues but the somatic issues are from real manifested health issues, I can't find someone to help