5-4-3-2-1 in Halong Bay

How Grounding Exercises Subdued my Sea Sickness in Vietnam

The limestone islands jutted out from the glassy bay over a picturesque horizon. It looked like a bucket list Pinterest post, so exquisitely beautiful that it seemed a mirage, blink once and it’s gone. The boat out to Sung Sot Cave had been seamless, gliding through the water like scissors through satin, without a wave in sight. “Whew, I can breathe” I thought. After years of motion sickness, I have come to expect the worst and attempt to be prepared.

On the way back to the mainland, our hosts graciously offered us a lunch of fish in an enclosed cabin. Feeling overly confident with my previously settled stomach, I gladly began to partake- but suddenly it all hit simultaneously. The dizziness. The smell became biting, pungent. A feeling of heat washing over my face. The boat transitioning from seamless glide to jerky rocking. I knew the feeling all too well, and was panicked to know that we still had 1.5 hours until reaching shore again, anticipating the worst.

I excused myself from our large tour group of over 25 people and stumbled up to the roof. Immediately popping Dramamine, applying sea sickness bracelets, starring out to the horizon. The nausea would intermittently dissipate, but then would ramp up again with each wave as anxiety welled up internally. These feelings spiraled and hit repeatedly for half an hour, and I braced myself for the remaining 60 minutes.

I wracked my brain for options. The anxiety felt uncontrollable. Was this a panic attack? I had experienced it before, witnessed in my clients and patients. It felt like a tsunami of fear. What would I recommend to others, and why was it always near-impossible to remember to apply to myself?

I tried deep breathing, box breathing. It helped a little, but still couldn’t cease my swirling thoughts.

Then I remembered- what about the 5-4-3-2-1 exercise? If I was so focused on my five senses, maybe I could avoid the queasiness taking over my body.

The 5-4-3-2-1 exercise is a practical grounding tool implementing the five senses to bring calm in anxiety-provoking situations. Observing 5 things you see, 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 things you smell, 1 thing you taste.

5 things I see

The limestone islands, the paint chipping on the boat, the aquamarine of the water, a hazy horizon, a small boat off in the distance

4 things I feel

The gentle caress of the breeze, the bench beneath my body, the cold steal of the boat rail, my hand digging into my wrist for acupressure

3 things I hear

The waves lapping onto the boat, the creak of the boat in the water, a horn of another boat in the distance

2 things I smell

The salt of the water, a faint smell of fish

1 thing I taste

The mint of the gum I popped in my mouth to ease my nerves

The aftermath

After making it through all five senses, I felt like the anxiety that was suffocating me had begun to slip away, I could engage in deep diaphragmatic breathing again. A friend finally ascended the stairs and asked if I was okay. With a shaky air of confidence, I responded “not yet but I know I will be.” I felt back in control of my body, back into a place of grounded peace despite being tossed to and fro in the rocky bay. Engaging my senses, feeling grounded, and finding calm off of the shores of Vietnam.