Six Categories Of Grounding Techniques For Anxiety And Intense Emotions

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-07 22:18

When we're in the midst of anxiety, flashback, or panic attack, our frontal lobes stubbornly refuse to work. We feel like it is simply impossible to focus or clearly reflect on anything, and sometimes our thoughts rush so quickly and turn into such a mess that it is simply unrealistic to keep track of them

It begins to seem to us that everything that happens around is as if in a fog, or, when someone was talking to us for several minutes, we suddenly realize that we have no idea what he was just talking about. Sometimes we feel paralyzed or as if frozen, we feel unable to make even the slightest movement or utter a word. This can happen to us, including when we experience too intense emotions - for example, a feeling of abandonment, resentment, hopelessness, fear or despair.

Grounding techniques are a great tool for these situations and can be used wherever you are. By bringing our mind and body back to the present moment, we can arrange space for our brain to calm down and feel a little more focused, at least enough to explain what is happening to us or ask for help or figure out what to do. with this state.

There are many different ways to ground - which is why it is such a wonderful technique - even if the techniques below are not for you personally, there are many others worth trying to find what works for you. You can also create your personal grounding technique by looking for something that helps you focus your feelings and brings you back to the present moment.

Here are a few of my favorite grounding techniques, which I have divided into several categories:

1. SELF-SALM

• Take a shower or bath. Focus on every step of your shower / bath preparation, noticing every little detail - how does your brush feel when you touch the doorknob and faucet? When you turn on the tap, how do you determine the right water temperature? Notice the sensations of the water on your body, paying attention to the temperature and sounds of the water, the sensations of the muscles in your body.
• Find a grounding object that attracts you … It can be something like a smooth stone or a polished piece of glass, something like a ball of yarn, the texture of which seems comfortable to you; it can be something like a small figurine or something that you have associated with good memories. Carry this object with you where it is easy to store and retrieve when you need to ground yourself. Pay attention to and describe in your mind every detail of the object, touching it with your hand and noting all the sensations from this touch.

• Brew a cup of tea, coffee, or hot chocolate … Perform every action with the utmost care, noticing every movement that your body makes; here your fingers squeezed the handle of the kettle, here your palm felt the cold of the tap, when you turn on the water, here you feel how the kettle in your hand becomes heavier as it fills with water. When the drink is ready, take small sips mindfully, snuggling up in a quiet place.

2. MARK THE FIVE SENSES

• Find a familiar scent (perfume, soap, lotion, tea, essential oils, etc.) and make it a habit to inhale that scent every morning, before bed, or at some other specific hour of the day. Carry this scent with you and breathe in every time you need to ground, combining this process with deep and slow breathing.
• Put on your favorite clothes - it can be socks, a favorite sweater or a soft, pleasant T-shirt. Note the texture, color, smell of this garment. A blanket or blanket is suitable for the same purposes.
• Wrap yourself tightly in a blanket … Hug yourself tightly or ask someone to hug you. Rub your arms and legs, moving up and down from the feet to the hips and up and down from the shoulders to the wrists.

3. USE THE BODY

• Mark how your feet are on the floor.… You can stand up and firmly "grow" your feet to the floor, take off your shoes and step with each foot on the ground or on the floor, feeling as if your feet are the foundation of a solid building firmly connected to the ground, literally feel the ground under your feet and strength gravity. You can do this while sitting in a chair or lying down.
• Literally ground yourself (personal favorite of the author!). Lie on the floor. Quickly scan your body to notice where the floor touches your body, which parts of the body are feeling it, and focus on this feeling of pressure, texture, temperature. Note all the vibrations that you can feel in the house right now. You can put the speaker on the floor and feel its vibrations.
• Move! Swing your legs, paying attention to the sensation of how each leg moves separately. Try how you can move the leg separately, when all other parts of the body remain motionless. Do the same with your fingers, feeling the strength in the muscles, their tension and relaxation during the movement.

• Rhythm. Tap the floor with your foot, find an object that is making a soft sound, tap your fingers on the table and gently on glass or some other surface, find a pleasant sound, and then create a rhythm and repeat it, trying to focus on the beginning and end of each sound you create.
• Engage in activities that involve all parts of the body … Go to the garden to pull the weeds. Try learning to knit. Buy kinetic sand or clay, or something else that uses fine motor skills. Wash the dishes, paying attention to the physical sensations. Fold the laundry in neat stacks.

4. OBSERVE AROUND

• Go outside (or find a window you can look through) and find any object … Mark as many details of this object as possible. For example, if you selected a tree, note how the light falls on it and where the branch's shadow is cast. Consider how many branches it has, whether they have buds or leaves. Take a closer look at the texture of the trunk, notice whether the branches are straight or curved, what is the shape of the leaves of this tree.
• Walk slowly through the space you are in, try to note every contact of your foot with the ground.… Note which part of your foot touches the ground first and where you feel the pressure. Notice how your foot lifts off the ground and the moment you are essentially balancing on one leg before lowering your foot in the next step.
• Find something nearby that has a specific pattern and try to sketch it on paper … For example, you can try sketching how the tiles were laid on the ceiling, transferring to paper a drawing on the carpet, or tracing the bizarre circles of the wood from which the table is made.
• Describe the room you are in now: out loud or to yourself. If the room is too large or cluttered, you can select a small area of the room or some object - like a bookshelf - and mark all the corners of the object, its color, light and shadow, texture and shape.
• If you are in a public place, look at the people around you and try to note details of their appearance. What color are their shoes? Which one is in jackets? Does anyone have an umbrella or a briefcase? What do their hairstyles look like?

5. DISTRACT THE BRAIN

• Add seven to zero as long as you can (or whatever interval you want): zero, seven, fourteen, twenty one, twenty eight …
• Play the game "guess the profession" … Look at the people around you and try to guess what they are doing or where they are going now.
• Think about today. Remind yourself of what day it is, day of the week, month, year, time of day, and where you are now. Remind yourself that you are in this moment now, not in the past, you are safe now. Mark the time of year outside the window, see what the sky looks like. State the address where you are now.
• Play the game "Categories": choose a category, for example, color, animals, food, and try to name at least 10 objects from that category. You can also use the alphabet and try to name objects from this category for each letter of the alphabet, starting with A, B, C, etc.
• Select a shape (triangle, circle, square) and try to find all the objects of this shape around you … You can do the same with flowers - for example, find everything green in a room.

6. BREATHE

• Breathe deeply - put one hand on your stomach and the other on your chest. Breathe in slowly and deeply into your stomach, trying to raise your hand on your stomach as if you were inflating a balloon or ball with air. Try not to move your hand on your chest, breathe only with your stomach. Exhale slowly, feeling the hand on your stomach drop slowly, as if a ball or ball were deflating.
• Breathing into 4-7-8 counts: inhale slowly for a count of four. Then, hold your breath for seven seconds, and finally exhale slowly and gently for eight seconds. Repeat as many times as you feel comfortable with. (Note: everyone has their own body size and lung capacity, if this particular combination does not suit you, you can do this exercise in comfortable intervals. The idea is that you follow a certain pattern and your breathing would become slower).

! Important note: grounding techniques are not there to get rid of unwanted emotions or abstract from current experiences, No, they are in order to have a resource to endure a certain experience and emotions, staying in the present tense and being present in your body.

❗It is important to discuss these conditions with a therapist or mental health professional, especially if you notice that panic attacks, flashbacks, or dissociation are becoming common.