There’s a belief that can quietly keep you stuck in sensorimotor OCD for a long time.
It’s the idea that if you could just time travel back to the moment before it started — before you became aware of the breath, the heartbeat, swallowing, blinking, saliva — and make sure you never had anxiety at the same time as that awareness… then you never would have got stuck in the first place. And therefore, now you could be happy. Now you could move on.
It creates this story of a “before and after.”
Before: normal life.
After: you’re trapped, and you’ll never feel okay again.
And believing that story is a guaranteed way to keep yourself stuck.
Because it’s built on something you can’t do. You can’t go back and erase the memory. You can’t remove the moment anxiety got paired with awareness. And when you believe you need to change the past in order to be free, you disempower yourself in the present. You start telling yourself recovery is impossible.
But it’s not.
You’re Not Broken — You’ve Learned a Fear Association
The reality is that, unfortunately, your brain has learned to couple fear and anxiety with a particular awareness in the body.
And yes, that can feel incredibly frustrating and scary.
But just because that’s happened doesn’t mean you’re always going to be this way. It doesn’t mean you’re always going to find it annoying or unbearable. It doesn’t mean you’re locked into this forever.
With compassion and acceptance, you can learn to stop associating these sensations with danger. You can become less bothered by them. You can get your life back — not by going back in time, but by changing your relationship with the sensations right now.
The Trap: Trying to “Fix” the Sensation
A huge part of sensorimotor OCD is the belief that it’s all about the sensation.
That if the sensation goes away, you’ll be free.
So you try to fight with it. You try to find the perfect tool. The perfect hack. The technique that finally makes you forget about it forever so it never pops into your consciousness again.
But the more you approach it like a problem to solve, the more energy you give it.
Because you’re still doing the same thing: problem-solving, monitoring, trying to control your internal experience. And inadvertently, that keeps the cycle alive.
Real long-term relief comes from a different place.
Not from fixing.
From changing your relationship.
What It’s Actually About: The Anxiety Underneath
With sensorimotor OCD, we tell ourselves it’s the sensation that’s the issue.
But it’s usually not.
It’s the underlying anxiety that we don’t want to feel. The fear. The doubt. The frustration. The anger at having to deal with it. The story that says, “Until this goes away, I can’t be happy.”
But the truth is: you can be happy.
Happiness is waiting for you. It’s been there the whole time.
And one way to describe what OCD does is it pulls you into the shade. You get angry, you get tense, you get locked into “I need this gone.” And while you’re doing that, it’s like you’re blocking the sun.
Recovery isn’t creating a new sun.
It’s stepping back into it.
The sensations might still be there. The anxiety might still show up. But you stop treating them like the thing that decides whether you can live your life.
The Real Skill: Feeling Sensations on Your Own Terms
This is the empowering part.
You can learn to feel these sensations on your own terms.
They do not dictate whether you’ll be happy. They do not dictate whether you can have a good life, a relationship, a career, a family, purpose, meaning, freedom.
If you keep telling yourself the story that they do, you’ll feel more and more stuck — and understandably so.
But if you learn a new response, a new relationship, things start to shift.
And it doesn’t have to be complicated.
A Simple 5-Minute Practice to Change the Relationship
This isn’t about trying to get rid of anything. It’s about practising a new stance.
Set aside just five minutes.
Sit down and take a few steady breaths. In through the nose… out through the mouth. Repeat that a few times, just to steady your nervous system a little bit.
Then feel the body.
Check in with the stomach. Check in with the chest. Notice your feet on the floor. Let your feet support you. Your feet can be an anchor when you’re feeling anxious.
Now gently turn toward the anxiety itself.
Not to fix it. Not to reduce it. Just to notice it with a bit more curiosity.
Where is it in the body?
What is it like?
If you had to describe it, what shape is it?
What texture is it?
You’re not trying to do this perfectly. You’re just making space.
And from there, if you like, move attention to the sensation you’ve been struggling with.
Where is it exactly in the body? What happens when you place attention on it on purpose?
You can even experiment with “turning it up” slightly — trying to feel it more — but with curiosity and compassion rather than fear and frustration.
Then simply sit and observe.
You don’t need to do this for longer than five minutes.
But over time, this practice teaches something powerful: you can feel sensations and emotions without turning them into a crisis. You stop fighting. You stop trying to fix. You develop a different relationship.
And that is the point.
It’s not about swallowing or blinking “correctly.” It’s not about doing things manually. It’s not about finding the perfect hack.
It’s about letting go of the fight and learning that these sensations aren’t dangerous.
They are just sensations. And you can learn how to feel them.
Want Support With Sensorimotor OCD?
If you’re struggling with sensorimotor OCD, I do have a 12-week programme to help you break free. It includes weekly one-to-one coaching sessions, worksheets, meditations, and an optional group session — all designed to help you change your relationship with sensations and get your freedom back.
You can find out more at robertjamescoaching.com (link in the show notes).
Many thanks,
Robert
Blog disclaimer
This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional mental health advice, diagnosis, or treatment. If you are dealing with OCD, anxiety, or any mental health concerns, please consult a licensed mental health professional for support.
