3 Grounding Practices to Support Your Healing Journey
What is grounding?
Grounding has been a very helpful tool along my own healing journey. Grounding refers to techniques that help us reconnect with the present moment, especially when we feel anxious, overwhelmed, or triggered. It’s also useful when navigating negative flashbacks, unwanted memories, or stressful thoughts.
Here are three common and easy grounding techniques that you can try today to help you throughout your day.
GROUNDING PRACTICE 1: The 5-4-3-2-1 Exercise
Start by noticing your breath. Keep your eyes open and allow yourself to breathe deeply in and out a few times. After you feel yourself focused on your breathing, follow the below steps to notice your environment and to ground yourself through your senses:
5: SEE
Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you. This could be a picture on the wall, a pen on your desk, the color of your pants, something outside your window, anything you see in your environment.
4: TOUCH
Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch or feel with your sensory touch. This could be what your feet feel like on the ground, your hands in your lap, your head on a pillow, the ring on your finger, allow yourself to feel four things through your body.
3: HEAR
Acknowledge THREE things you can hear. This could be a fan in the room you are in, someone talking outside, the sound of the dishwasher, notice any sounds in your external environment.
2: SMELL
Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. This could be your essential oils, a perfume you’re wearing, the scent of your coffee, notice any smells that arise. Also notice how intentionally smelling feels different than breathing.
1: TASTE
Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste. What does your mouth taste like? Is it dry? Can you taste coffee, a mint, or recent food? Allow yourself to notice the taste in your mouth.
When finished, take a few more deep breaths. Notice how you are feeling now that you completed this exercise. Do you feel more grounded and present? Do you feel calmer? What are your thoughts like now that you have spent time focusing on your present environment?
Personal Note: This is my go to practice when I am feeling overwhelmed in the mornings. I have struggled with nightmares for years, and I have found this practice helpful when I wake up in the morning feeling stressed and disoriented.
GROUNDING PRACTICE 2: Box Breathing
This is a breathing technique to decrease stress and to help you ground into your body. Fun fact: This is a technique used by the Navy Seals in high stress situations.
How to do this: Start focusing on your breath. Then when you are ready, you will:
Breathe in for 4 counts.
Hold for 4 counts.
Breathe out for 4 counts.
Hold for 4 counts.
You are forming a box with your breath.
Set a timer and Box Breathe for 5 minutes. After the 5 minutes reflect on how you feel. Do you feel more present?
Personal Note: This is my most common practice. It is my go-to when I feel anxious or overwhelmed. You can find me box breathing in traffic, in the grocery store, or any time I’m overwhelmed. This tool helps me over and over again to return to my body and become present and less reactive.
GROUNDING PRACTICE 3: Earthing
Earthing is a simple practice of connecting to the Earth’s energy to assist with grounding into your body.
Find a place in nature where you can sit and place your bare feet (no shoes or socks!) on the Earth. This could be grass in your backyard, a large rock, the beach, a nearby park, anywhere you can comfortably sit with your bare feet on the Earth.
Picture all your stress leaving your body through your feet and being absorbed by the Earth.
Set a timer for 5-15 minutes and sit with your feet on the Earth with no distractions. Put your phone on airplane mode, and choose to just be present in nature.
After the 5-15 minutes, check in with yourself and see if you feel calmer and more present. If not, you may need to sit a bit longer.
Personal Note: Earthing is magical. I think we have all felt the healing powers of Mother Earth, but I can’t say enough about how powerful it is to just get outside and put your bare feet on planet Earth. Also, I have found that when I do it in public, others tend to begin taking their shoes off as well! How fun!
