Learning How to Ground

 

Tuning Into Your Environment:

Anxiety and panic attacks are very common and can be difficult to manage. Especially when you're by yourself and are unable to rely on others for help. So what do you do? Luckily there are some effective ways to help control these conditions. Grounding techniques and mindfulness are great resources that benefit many people who suffer from these conditions. Below is a list of ways to help calm a person's mind and reorient them to their environment. 

The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique: Name out loud: 5 - things you can see (you can look within the room and out of the window) 4 - things you can feel (the silkiness of your skin, the texture of the material on your chair, what does your hair feel like? What is in front of you that you can touch? A table perhaps?) 3 - things you can hear (traffic noise or birds outside when you are quiet and actually listening things in your room constantly make a noise but typically we don't hear them). 2 - things you can smell (hopefully nothing awful!) 1 - thing you can taste (it might be a good idea to keep a piece of chocolate handy in case you are doing this grounding exercise!

Hold Something and Really Focus On It: Find an object small enough to hold in your hand that has texture and a variety of colors. Some objects I find that work well for this technique are crystals and gemstones. These have a variety of textures and colors that you can focus on and feel. Focus on the weight of the stone and the shadows that reflect on it. The best part about these objects is that they are small enough that you can put them in your pocket or purse and use them on the go!

Let Your Thoughts Come and Go: Observe your thoughts and acknowledge them. Do not dwell on them for long periods. This will help when you feel overwhelmed and have racing thoughts. Using imagery for guidance, picture the thought as an object that slowly drifts away. This could be a leaf floating in the air and being blown away by a gust of wind. Or a fish in a pond that swims away after wading in the stream for a minute. Or the most common of all, imagining a balloon of your favorite color that slowly drifts away.   

Draw Around Your Foot In Your Mind: Place your feet on the ground and in your imagination pick your favorite color to draw an outline around each foot. Start at the heel and using your imaginary pencil slowly go up the side of your foot to your pinky toe and then make sure you draw around each toe and then go back towards the heel. Repeat on the other foot.