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hey there everybody and welcome to this video on
six simple grounding techniques i'm your host dr donnelly snipes
let's start out by defining what is grounding grounding is the act of refocusing your attention
and the thoughts to the present moment to help you turn off your autopilot get into
your wise mind and take control of your thoughts it helps you recognize where you are when you are
and what you are in control of
grounding is really good for helping people when they start to feel threatened when people feel
threatened it can trigger feelings of anger or anxiety your threat response which results in
a lot of things but the ones we're talking about with grounding are racing thoughts
ruminations or thoughts you can't get out of your head
flashbacks and dissociation and grounding is really good for all four of these things
the first technique 54321
when you start to feel anxious or angry or even if you just want to be more mindful periodically stop
identify five things that you see four things that you hear three things that you smell
two things that you feel like the cool breeze and the feeling of the clothing against your arm
whatever it is and one thing that you taste now taste can get a little dicey sometimes
you may not taste anything but definitely 5432 you can also do another version of this by just
identifying five green things that you see or five brown things that you see so you're not
having to do five 5432 you're just finding five things that are of a certain category
narration is the next tool when you're feeling anxious a lot of times you can get into
emotion-focused reasoning i feel scared therefore there must be a threat and you can get caught
up in your mind swimming about what is going to happen next what's wrong where's the threat and
it can get really noisy so grounding can help you get refocused by narrating you tell yourself you
say i'm safe you say where you are i'm safe i'm in my office and then you narrate what you're doing
i'm getting ready to go to a meeting i'm looking for my keys i'm walking out the door so as you're
doing things you're narrating exactly what you're doing to stay focused on the present moment
or another twist on narration is to state the problem if you if your anxiety or your anger gets
triggered state the problem identify what needs to be done and then list the steps to make it happen
so for example if you're driving down the road and you get a flat tire
oh my gosh what do you do well state the problem okay i got a flat tire i need
to get my my emergency tire put on first thing i need to do is pull over on the side of the road
next thing i need to do is call aaa whatever it is that you do to get the tire back on your car
for people like me who are very structure oriented and we love routine something like
a flat tire can throw us for a complete tail spin because it's like this was not planned
i don't know what to do but in reality we do so if you just step back and you state the problem
identify the goal and then start listing the steps as if you are explaining to
a child what needs to be done then you're going to help yourself get focused into your logical mind
the next one is deep or what i sometimes call balloon breathing
when you do this and sometimes we call it four square breathing you breathe in for four
hold for four exhale for four hold for four okay that's fine but that is not super grounding that
will help trigger your vagus nerve and your relaxation response but grounding really means
turning your attention to the present moment so with balloon breathing as you breathe in you're
counting to four and you're also noticing how the air feels coming in through your nose is it cold
is it hot does it stink do you smell something good and then you're going to notice your stomach
expanding followed by your chest when we inhale it's like blowing a balloon the farthest aspect
expands first and then the more air you put into it the more the balloon fills up so you'll notice
when you inhale your belly expands first and then your chest hold for four and then exhale for four
and as you exhale notice how the air feels leaving through your mouth so you inhale through your nose
exhale through your mouth it'll probably be a lot warmer this time because it's been in your body
for a while and then feel your chest shrinking followed by your stomach just like a balloon does
when you let go of a balloon the top part gets smaller before the bottom part
so the most recent air that was taken in is the first air out so think of your core like one of
those big long balloons and when you inhale feel it expand and as you exhale feel it contract
open awareness is the next technique open awareness means not focusing on any one thing in
particular it means being aware of the moment so say where you are for example i'm in my office and
then describe what you see as if you're talking to someone who's not there maybe you're talking
to somebody on the phone describe to them what you smell what you feel and what you hear so if you're
at the park you're going to describe what you're smelling and what you're feeling the sun beating
down on you the air blowing across your skin and what you're hearing hopefully birds chirping
and children playing and maybe an airplane going overhead whatever it is you're hearing
and then look to your right and describe what you see as completely as possible so if they wanted
to they could paint it once you're finished then look forward and describe what you see
and once you're finished there look to the left and describe what you see
now you may not have enough time to do all three perspectives but it can be helpful to
just stop and describe everything you're not doing five four three two one you are just noticing
anything that comes into your awareness in that period of time
and self-awareness and the mnemonic for this is pitches you know i love my
mnemonics become mindful of yourself turn your attention to your body and and your this envelope
that is you and start becoming mindful of yourself in the moment p stands for pain do you have any
if so what can you do about it i stands for illness if you're starting to feel sick if you're
starting your allergies are acting up or something what can you do about it t is for tension
scan from head to toe do you have muscle tension somewhere that you're experiencing that you need
to either massage out or stretch or move around c stands for cold or hot are you uncomfortable
when you're not the right temperature it causes stress it adds anxiety h is for hunger if your
blood sugar's low you're more likely to feel shaky and jittery and maybe mislabel that as anxiety
and you can become hangry and become more irritable with people if your blood sugar is low
e stands for emotions what are you feeling right now are you happy are you sad are you curious are
you flat what are you feeling and if it's not what you want to be feeling how can you improve
the next moment and finally s is for safety be mindful of are you safe in the moment in
this context at this time are you safe when you go through those things it turns your attention
to yourself and empowers you to take control of those things over which you can control
grounding exercises are essential tools to help people deal with anxiety dissociation
flashbacks ruminations and obsessive thoughts grounding can help you feel less out of control
so you can recognize your power in the present moment instead of having this litany of what if's
going on turning your attention to the moment what is going on with me right now what do i need to
attend to right now when you do that it helps get into your wise mind it helps you turn down that
stress response turn down the adrenaline get out of the adrenaline haze whatever you want to say
get into your wise mind and figure out how to address the issue and improve the next moment