Episode 11 - Grounding Techniques
Do you often find yourself feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or stuck in cyclical thinking about past or future conversations? If so, you might benefit from grounding techniques to distract you and bring you back into the present moment!
What You’ll Learn in this Episode
What are grounding techniques?
How and when do you use them
Some common grounding techniques
How grounding techniques can help
Links Mentioned in this Episode
Transcript
Just a quick note before we get started, today’s episode may include the use of profanity or adult language. Listener discretion is advised.
No information provided in this podcast should be substituted for medical advice.
Welcome to Episode 11 of Shift Your Shit with Sara, today we’re going to be talking about grounding techniques.
If you often find yourself stuck in a cycle of anxiety, panic, worry, or overthinking, you may benefit from using grounding techniques.
These types of feelings are common, so definitely don’t feel as though you’re alone! It can definitely happen when you find yourself focusing on events that are happening either in the past, or in the future, so grounding can help to bring you back to the present moment.
As I talked about in episode 9 on mindfulness, these ruminations are all in our minds and don’t affect the outcome of the actual situation, so these types of feelings aren’t helpful.
So, what are some of the things you can do to reset your mind when this is happening? You can try a grounding technique that is simple but effective. These techniques can help to create space, a moment in time, to allow you to free yourself from cyclical thinking.
A grounding technique is a tool that can help you to break the cycle and bring you back into the current moment. It’s a form of distraction that can keep you from unhelpful thinking patterns. Grounding techniques can provide you with the relief you need either in the moment, or to do further work within yourself.
These tools are practices, as we’ve talked about before, something that we get better at the more we practice it, and it can eventually become second nature and much easier to do in the moments that we need it. This is why it is best to practice these kinds of tools everyday, even when we aren’t needing them, that way when we do need them, they are more easily accessible to us.
What kinds of grounding techniques are there? There are so many, here are just a few.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1 technique or your five senses.
Take a deep breath.
What are five things you can see around you?
What are four things you can feel?
What are three things you can hear?
What are two things you can smell?
What is one thing you can taste?
Visualizing your energy.
Take a deep breath.
Visualize all of your energy reconnecting to you as you become whole.
Imagine a cord coming from you and anchoring deep into the earth’s core.
See roots growing from the cord, anchoring you deep into the earth, like a tree.
Visualize yourself being deeply connected to the earth’s core, exchanging energy back and forth.
Distract with Sameness.
Find all of the square or round objects in the room you are in.
Find all the green objects in the room.
Count by sixes or some other obscure number.
Breathing practices - like 4-7-8 breathing
Inhale for four
Hold for seven
Exhale for eight
The best thing about grounding techniques is that you can do them anywhere and they don’t require any special equipment to do them.
Don’t be hard on yourself as you practice grounding if you forget, or have a hard time completing the technique. It’s okay - these things can be difficult, and like we mentioned before, it is a practice.
Grounding can help to calm your nervous system and connect to the current moment. This means it can be very helpful when you are feeling that things are beginning to become out of control. Use this as a trigger to remember to try a grounding technique.
Today’s tiny takeaway is to practice a grounding technique. Try one of the ones mentioned in today’s podcast, or find another that feels comfortable for you.
Practice these short and easy techniques daily and see if they help you the next time you’re feeling anxious, worrisome, or out of control.
I hope that today’s episode has been helpful for you - everything I talked about today can be found in today’s show notes at shiftyourshitwithsara.com/11, that’s the number 11.
If you find that you’re getting stressed as we move closer to the holidays, please join me in my free holiday stress workshop on November 18th at 7pm EST.
You can sign up by going to shiftyourshitwithsara.com/workshop. I look forward to seeing you there.
Thank you so much for joining me for today’s episode, I can’t wait to see you next time.
