so I‘ve started another attempt. to be honest, my hopes aren‘t high but this is also an experiment and if I learn coping techniques that can make the next attempt easier, I view it as success.

anyway. I‘ve been doing this breathing exercise to help with the carvings. inhale for as long as I can and while exhaling I whisper a mantra. I do this five times and either focus on a different finger each time, or on all the sounds I can make out. it helps to take my mind off the carvings but they tend to come back rather quickly.

I also got an hourglass that‘s like 2.5 minutes that I take outside when I can identify „I need a break from whatever I‘m doing“ as the reason for my cravings. it works too.

but now I‘m looking for breathing exercises that take about five minutes, ones that I really need to concentrate on in order to do them correctly. five minutes of deep breathing doesn‘t work for me because I can‘t focus on it for long enough and I get restless, which is the exact opposite of what I‘m trying to achieve. so what I‘m looking for is something that‘s still somewhat beginner friendly, but a bit more complex.

please don‘t recommend books (I get very overwhelmed by book recommendations for multiple reasons), just drop me some terms to google.