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Exercises Coming back to yourself

Rainbow

Gathers scattered attention.

Rhythm: A breath for each colour · find or imagine

Open in the app

How does it help?

A simple grounding that uses sight alone. Each colour gives your eyes, or your imagination, a concrete target; searching and finding moves your attention from anxious thoughts to your senses and your body. Taking a breath with each colour also slows your pace.

On screen

At the top of the screen, the light of the colour you are looking for swells and fades like a breath. When you find or imagine the colour, tap the screen; take a breath, and as you breathe out the colour flows down the line into its place. The colours line up from bottom to top until your rainbow is complete. With sound on, a soft bell rings with each colour.

When it can help

  • When anxiety or restlessness rises
  • When your attention is scattered and focusing is hard
  • Before sleep, imagining the colours with your eyes closed
  • In a crowd or a meeting, without anyone noticing

About the colours

Searching for colours gives your eyes and mind a visual task. Simple tasks that need visual attention use the same resources as distressing mental images; studies at Oxford found such tasks reduced distressing images.

In modern yoga and meditation sources, the chakras are shown in the same rainbow order: red at the base of the body, violet at the crown. The colour column filling from the bottom up follows this rise.

Research and sources

What does research say?

Widely recommended in therapist handouts and mental health resources. Sources suggest choosing a similar shade, or skipping a colour you can't see.

Sources