This post is all about how to ground yourself in the moment.

Grounding is a set of strategies which prevent emotional pain (e.g., anxiety, anger, sadness etc.) from overwhelming you.

It consists of ideas or activities that distract you from the complex emotions that are causing you pain and help you get through them.

Sometimes, grounding can refer to centring, distracting, creating a safe place or healthy detachment.

GROUNDING TECHNIQUES FOR DIFFERENT SITUATIONS

Grounding techniques are a way to bring your attention back to the present moment. People can use these grounding techniques in different situations, such as when feeling anxious or stressed.

In this post, we’ll discuss two ways of grounding that can help you when things get out of control.

1. Mental grounding involves focusing your mind on tasks or processes.
2. Physical grounding means focusing your senses on in-person or live experiences and taking care of them.

MENTAL GROUNDING

Mental grounding is a technique that helps people to stay grounded in the present moment. It brings your attention back to the present moment you feel overwhelmed or stressed.

Mental grounding techniques range from taking time out to describe your surroundings and current environment in detail to counting.

The science behind mental grounding is to thwart anxiety-inducing moments by utilizing focus on the details of surroundings and memories.

When we use mental grounding techniques, we aim to redirect our brains away from anxiety and stressors and instead focus on something else -whether it’s how many floorboards are in the room or every ingredient in grandma’s oatmeal raisin cookie recipe.

There are many mental grounding techniques that you can use, but a few of the more popular ones are:

• The 5-4-3-2-1 technique: This technique is used when you feel overwhelmed and need to calm down. You start by counting down from 5 to 1 while focusing on your breathing.
• The three breaths technique: This technique is used when you feel anxious or stressed and need to calm down. You take three deep breaths and focus on breathing for a few minutes.
• The “What’s happening?” technique: This technique is used when you feel like your thoughts are racing and you need to focus on what’s happening around you. You ask yourself, “What am I doing?” or “What am I thinking about?”

PHYSICAL GROUNDING

Physical grounding is a psychotherapeutic technique that can reduce psychological stress and emotional arousal by reconnecting an individual experiencing anxiety to something in the physical world.

Physical contact with our five senses is an effective way of grounding ourselves in reality and easing the stress from our day-to-day lives.

HOW TO GROUND YOURSELF IN THE MOMENT Click To Tweet

Take a look at some of these simple grounding techniques:

• The grounding sheet: This technique is used when you have trouble sleeping because of anxiety or stress.
• Use a piece of furniture: An example of using a piece of furniture as a grounding mechanism while sitting in a chair, with feet touching the ground. Keep your eyes closed and focus on the sensation of the breath going in and out of the body. Next, imagine your energy from the crown of the head coming down through the body to the legs, and visualize ‘roots’ connecting from the soles of the feet, sinking into the ground.
• “Earthing”: The technique is used when you need to clear out and stabilize the root chakra. It is achieved by placing naked soles of the feet onto the ground while visualizing how the roots within the soles are attaching and ‘rooting’ us metaphorically into the earth.
• Use an object with strong emotional or personal significance: When negative feelings arise, emotions – feeling a familiar item, such as a crystal or a button, will bring the focus to the present moment and the object.

OTHER GROUNDING RESOURCES

The above examples of mental and physical grounding are not an exhaustive list. Many techniques are available, such as free meditation on YouTube and Spotify, and it is possible to develop the grounding methods that work best for us.

The key is to find out what works best on an individual level and not be afraid to make this a regular practice, not just when panic strikes.

WHAT GROUNDING TECHNIQUES HAVE YOU TRIED?

LET’S CONNECT!

INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | PINTEREST