This article was kindly written by Aimee Macleod
Grounding techniques are used to bring our mind back to the present moment,
back into our current environment and into our body. Grounding techniques are for
everything and everyone in my opinion. Whether you are feeling stressed, anxious, low,
overwhelmed, angry, panicky or frustrated, grounding techniques can be used to break any
viscous cycles we might find ourselves in, and allow us to deescalate these feelings. In this
article I will share two types of grounding techniques in depth, but there are many others.
5 Senses
The first grounding technique I would like to share, is called the 5 senses exercise and it
involves engaging our 5 senses: sight, touch, sound, smell and taste, to bring our attention
back to our current environment.
This exercise invites you to really notice the details of 5 things in your immediate
environment and focus on the finer details of those objects. To make this more engaging,
you could choose to focus on 5 square items you can see or maybe 5 red items. It then
invites you to think about 4 things you can touch. This could be the sensation of your clothes
on your body, or you may have an item in your hand that you can use to notice the textures.
Then we want to focus on 3 sounds you can hear in your external environment. After this,
we want to focus on 2 things you are able to smell, this could be anything again, it could be
your hand wash, or freshly cut grass if you are outside. Finally, we want to focus on one
thing you can taste. This could be some gum, or maybe coffee. Maybe you can’t taste
anything, so acknowledging this can be helpful and reflecting on what that feels like for you
can be beneficial.
Square Breathing
Secondly, square breathing is another great exercise that allows us to concentrate on our
breath and come back to our body.
Square breathing involves you breathing in for four seconds, holding that breath for 4
seconds, breathing out for 4 seconds and holding the out breath for 4 seconds. If breathing
in for 4 seconds is not accessible to you at the moment, please do this exercise for less than
4 seconds at your own pace. I recommend doing this exercise for at least 30 seconds to
begin to feel the relaxing and grounding sensation. Whilst doing this exercise, it can be
helpful to imagine a square being drawn in our minds, which engages some mindfulness into
the square breathing. The beauty of this exercise is that it can be done anywhere, and no
one would notice you were doing it, so it can be used at work, social gatherings or on a walk
to name a few places.
I hope you mind find these exercises useful!
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