Sweaty palms, racing heart, and erratic thoughts – feeling anxious can be debilitating and overwhelming.
Once we recognise the experience and when it happens, we can put in place techniques that allow us to regain control. Grounding practices can be particularly helpful due to their potential for use anywhere, at any time. These strategies from Positive Psychology can be really useful.
While grounding is valuable for managing anxiety triggers and lessening symptoms, it is also helpful for regaining control when life appears to be running away from us (Williams & Penman, 2016).
What Is Grounding & How Can It Help?
Anxiety can leave us feeling panicky, on edge, and as though we are losing control.
While it can be debilitating, anxiety is thought to have evolutionary origins. It is the unwanted product of a valuable and ancient fight-or-flight response to perceived danger and, for a long time, kept humans alive. When we experience or think about stressful events, our amygdala is activated, preparing us for events and behaviours that may need to happen (Allen, 2020; Jenkins-Omar, 2020).
A negative thought about an actual or imagined situation can lead to changes in the body, including increased muscle tension, elevated heart rate, and faster breathing. Such bodily changes can further exacerbate anxious thinking, leading to a vicious cycle that leaves us physically and emotionally overwhelmed.
In our modern, busy, and overstimulating world, such automatic and often unwanted responses can damage our mental health (Jenkins-Omar, 2020).
It doesn’t have to be this way. Anxiety is not a given, and there are tools and techniques that can help, one of which is known as grounding.
Grounding essentially means bringing the focus back to our physical experiences rather than remaining at the mercy of our racing and self-doubting minds.
Becoming more aware of our body and our surroundings helps us regain a sense of control by grounding us in the present moment rather than focusing on possible and unwanted future outcomes or unfortunate past events (Allen, 2020).
In a sense, grounding gets us out of our heads, escaping anxious and stressful thoughts and regaining the moment.
How Does Grounding Work in Real Life?
Grounding can create a sense of personal calm and be especially valuable when our days are most hectic or life starts unravelling. The techniques take little or no resources and can be performed quickly and discreetly
There are at least three types of grounding techniques used in real-world situations: mental, physical, and soothing. Individuals can use them separately as the occasion demands or combine them as needed.
Mental techniques – Focusing the mind
The individual pays attention to specific aspects of the environment, for example, describing the room, naming items in a category (such as types of cars, dogs, songs, or sports), explaining an activity in great detail, or imagining a pleasant situation or image.
Physical techniques – Focusing the senses
Stimulating or experiencing the senses can help. Running water gently over our hands or wrists and noticing the sensations or paying attention to the weight of our body against the chair provides both a distraction from the upsetting situation and a welcome focus for calm.
Soothing techniques – Talking to ourselves with kindness and compassion
Repeating words of compassion or coping statements, such as, “I can do this” or “These feelings will pass,” can be comforting and consoling. Statements like this, said out loud or to ourselves, show kindness and self-compassion when situations can seem hostile.
Best Grounding Tools and Techniques
1. Five senses
Your senses are another powerful way to reconnect with the present and redirect attention away from anxiety triggers.
While you may wish to find somewhere quiet, this exercise can be performed anywhere.
When sitting comfortably, close your eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths in through your nose and out through your mouth. Relax and focus your attention on each breath as it happens.
Next, open your eyes and, either to yourself or out loud, ask yourself the following:
· What can I see?
· What can I feel?
· What can I hear?
· What can I smell?
· What can I taste?
Try to remain in the moment throughout, returning your attention to each sense and what you observe.
When you’re ready, take a few deep breaths to end the exercise.
2. Holding an object
Experiencing and becoming immersed in an object can be a great way to ground yourself.
It can be helpful to keep a smooth stone or small paperweight in a drawer ready for this exercise. Any object with a pleasant texture or nice appearance that can fit in the palm of your hand will work.
Hold the object in your hand, bringing your full attention to how it looks and feels. Think about its colours, how it sparkles, reflects the light, or casts a shadow. Reflect on its texture. Is it smooth, soft, rippled, coarse, or dry? Does it feel light and balanced, or heavy and unevenly weighted?
Spend time observing the object, immersed, present, and grounded.
3. Grounding chair
Even the act of sitting can help us regain a sense of feeling grounded, and it can be discreetly performed anywhere.
Become aware of the contact between you and your seat, your weight against its surface, and the texture of the material on the chair.
When you’re ready, apply pressure from your feet to the ground. Imagine the weight draining from your mind and body (perhaps as a color of your choice) into the ground. Feel the lightness of each part of your body as that weight leaves.
Take a few easy, slow breaths and return your awareness to the room when you are ready. Notice how you may feel a little lighter, more present, and less burdened.
4. Ask yourself questions
While anxiety often leaves us feeling on edge and panicky, it may also cause us to feel unreal, dissociated, and detached. Grounding ourselves with questions can bring us back to the here and now.
Ask yourself the following questions and write down the answers, perhaps in a dedicated journal or on quality paper set aside for the task using a preferred pen or pencil:
Where am I right now?
What day and month is it?
What season is it?
How old am I?
Where do I live, and with whom?
Imagine yourself at this point. A line of human ancestors brought you to the present moment, to be here right now.
5. Positive coping statement
Prepare a coping statement for when you begin to feel the onset of anxiety or overwhelm.
For example,
My name is X. Everything that is happening now will pass. There will come a time when I can look back on this time without fear or anxiety.
Repeat the above statement or something similar, lingering on each word, and recognise the temporary nature of painful memories and difficult events.
6. Three-minute breathing space meditation
Mindful breathing is the perfect companion to grounding.
Breathing is a powerful, effective, and instant way to return the body and mind to the present and experience the many benefits of mindfulness.
Sitting upright and comfortably, close your eyes, bringing your attention to your inner experience.
Step one: Explore your experience right now by considering the following:
· What thoughts are going through your mind? Recognise them as mental events.
· What feelings are present? Acknowledge them without attempting to change them.
· What bodily sensations are you experiencing? Become aware of any tightness or discomfort, but do not try to influence the sensation.
Step two: Gather and focus.
· Imagine a small spotlight following the physical sensations of each breath.
· Move in close to the sensation of the breath in your abdomen. Recognise it expanding and contracting. Gently place your hand on your stomach if it helps.
· Maintain your focus.
Step three: Expand your attention.
· Expand your awareness of your breath to your whole body.
· Become aware of your whole being as you breathe, including discomfort and tension, each breath moving around the sensations.
· Rather than trying to change them, befriend the sensations.
When you are ready, take a few gentle, deep breaths, opening your eyes if you haven’t already done so. Return your attention to your surroundings while carrying the calmness with you.
Want to manage your anxiety more effectively? Get in contact with Michelle Bakjac via email at michelle@bakjacconsulting.com to enquire about psychological counselling to develop your strategies.
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ Plus accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals, teams and organisations to develop and improve performance, leadership, behaviour, resilience and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com
