Simple Grounding Techniques for Anxiety

WWhen we are feeling anxious, it’s difficult to understand the cause and therefore it becomes difficult to calm ourselves. When our mind is racing with thoughts and we feel that we cannot bring ourselves back to the here and now, grounding techniques are helpful in managing overwhelming feelings or anxiety and they can help us to clam ourselves down effectively.

The essence of grounding techniques is to bring our focus to what is happening to us physically, both in our body or in our surroundings, rather than being trapped by our thoughts in our mind which may be causing us to feel overwhelming emotions or anxiety. It also helps us stay in the present moment instead of worrying about things that may happen in the future or events that have already passed, but we may still find ourselves going back to them in our minds.

Here are some grounding techniques to try out, we need to remember that we are all different therefore, it’s important to find the right grounding technique for us! 

The Grounding chair

Sit down on a chair that you find comfortable but that allows your feet to reach the floor.

Close your eyes and focus on your breathing

Breathe in slowly for the count of three (through the nose), then breathe out slowly (through the mouth)

Bring your mind’s focus to your body 

How does your body feel sitting down on the chair? 

Scooch your bum right into the back of the seat so the whole length of your back is pressing into the back of the chair

Can you feel the contact between your body and the chair’s surface? 

If the chair has arms, touch it, is the material smooth or textured?

Press your arms down the length of the chair arm, notice how your hands hang off the end

If your chair doesn’t have arms, touch the material on the seat, how does that feel? 

Next, push your feet into the ground

Imagine the energy draining down from your mind, down through your body and out through your feet into the ground.

Describe the energy that you are picturing to yourself, say it out aloud 

As the energy drains from your head, feel how heavy each body part becomes, your torso feels heavy and now your arms as you relax those muscles.

Lastly, feel the heaviness go down your legs, through your feet and down into the ground. 

When you are ready, open your eye and take a deep breath. Get up when you feel ready. 

The 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding technique

This grounding technique gets us to use all our five senses to help us to get back to the present. It starts with us sitting comfortably, closing our eyes and taking a couple of deep breathes. In through our nose (count to 3), out through our mouth (to the count of 3).

Now open your eyes and look around you.

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! You can always leave your chair for this one and when you taste whatever it is that you have chosen, take a small bite and let it swill around your mouth for a couple of seconds, really savouring the flavour).

Take a deep breath to end.

Draw around your foot in your mind

This technique requires us to place our feet on the ground and with our imagination pick our favourite colour to draw an outline around each foot.

Start at the heel and using our imaginary pencil slowly go up the side of your foot to your pinky toe, then make sure you draw around each toe and then go back towards the heel. Repeat on the other foot. 

Another way is to focus on your feet when you are in a stressful situation is just wiggle your toes inside your shoe. 

Pay attention to the sensation as you move each separate toe. Do some move independently of the others?

Tense up your whole foot then stretch it out. 

Now do the same to the other foot. 

Hopefully these grounding techniques help you and help with getting out of your thoughts and bringing your focus back to your body. 

Try the techniques and see which one best suit you and practise them. Remember that we need to practise the techniques in order to be able to remember them and use them when we really need it.

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