We often mention and recommend grounding on this blog as a way to help folks who feel dissociated, overwhelmed, anxious, dazed, blurry, or disconnected. But we don’t have a post specifically compiling grounding techniques, so we decided to make one! Here are a few things our system does to ground ourselves when we’re feeling out of it.
Breathe in deep through your nose for 4 seconds, filling up your chest and belly with air, then exhale through your mouth for 7 seconds. Rinse and repeat - we usually do this 4-6 times in order to gain a bit more clarity or calm down.
The following clip can also be used - feel free to save this and breathe along with it to help calm down!
(Description:) A short clip of a small line expanding into a triangle, square, pentagon, adding sides up to an octagon with the prompt “Breathe in,” then shrinking back down to a small line with the prompt “Breathe out” over a period of nine seconds (End Description.)
Try to notice and pay attention to your surroundings. List 4 things you can see, 3 things you can feel, 2 things you can hear, and 1 thing you can taste or smell. You could also do 5-4-3-2-1 for sight, touch, sound, smell, and taste!
Pull yourself out of a spiral, bring your focus on the present, or gain some sensation if you’re dissociating with a sharp experience. Hold a piece of ice or eat a lemon slice our a sour candy. Our system carries Warhead candies to help ground ourselves with sharp experiences.
Notice all sorts of things around you - clothes, furniture, utensils, anything within reach that you can safely touch. What is the texture like? Is anything soft, rough, smooth, hard, cool, or bumpy? What does it look like? Can you name some specific colors or shapes that you see? Try to be as specific with your observations as you can.
Take a short walk outside or around your current space. Try to notice how your body feels as you move. Count the steps that you take. Look at everything around you, and notice how what you see and hear changes with your movement.
A centering statement can be a great way to help ground yourself in the present moment in time and space. You can write your statement down beforehand and take a look at it whenever you need, filling in the gaps for your present moment and situation. The centering statement our system uses these days says:
“My name is [system member]. I am a part of the Halberd Crew. I am [age] years old. I have [physical features]. The date is [date] and the time is [time]. I am in [physical location]. If I need help, I can contact [partner system] at [phone number].”
While this may work for grounding when dissociated, this strategy is more intended for calming down when overwhelmed. We’ve covered this technique in detail in a previous post, which we’ll link HERE (<- hyperlink).
This pretty much sums up the grounding techniques that various members of our system use in order to help themselves when feeling disconnected or frazzled. We hope something here can be of some use to someone out there! Remember to look after yourselves to the best of your ability, and use some of these techniques to help ground yourself if you need to in the future. Thanks so much for reading, and take care!
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