Finding Your Calm Place

An EMDR-Inspired Tool to Cultivate Calm Anytime

This is my Calm Place – a place I’ve been before, though yours can be imagined, like a scene from your favourite book or the garden of your dreams. For me, it’s this view from my room in Panama: the sky ablaze with the most vibrant purples, the ocean gentle, the breeze soft. I felt completely at ease.

What’s magical about the brain is that it doesn’t distinguish much between vividly imagining something and experiencing it in real time.

This same mechanism explains why traumatic memories can feel as though they’re happening again when triggered. The body responds as if it's reliving the event. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), a therapeutic technique, harnesses this brain function to help reprocess painful memories and reduce their emotional charge.

One powerful EMDR tool is the Calm Place exercise, designed to evoke feelings of safety and ease. Research shows that techniques like these help reduce distress by activating the parasympathetic nervous system, your body's natural "rest and digest" state. By repeatedly returning to a calm, safe place in your mind—whether real or imagined—you train your brain to associate that mental image with relaxation, even in moments of stress.

To begin, all you need is a quiet spot, a comfortable seat, and a place in your mind where you feel safe and at peace. Close your eyes, visualize the scene, and allow yourself to settle into the calm it brings.

For those curious to explore this further, the full recorded guided meditation to help you create your own Calm Place is available for paid subscribers below.

If you want to learn more about EMDR and its transformative potential click here. I am accepting new clients virtually in ON, BC and AB as a Registered Psychotherapist and Clinical Counsellor.