Grounding

“No Feeling is Final.”

What is Grounding?

Grounding is any strategy that uses distraction and return to present moment awareness to focus EXTERNALLY, to center, calm, and detach from overwhelming emotional and physical states.

Why Do Grounding?

When we are overwhelmed by emotional and physical states of arousal, we are internally focused or lost in the flooding process. We can use grounding as a way to anchor ourselves in the present moment reality around us to manage the experience and interrupt the cascade of sensations, thoughts, and feelings. Grounding is critical when we are in extremes of overwhelming emotions or memories, AND when we are numbing or dissociated. When we use grounding, it helps us shift to a more balanced state of awareness of our internal state and ability to tolerate it. It helps us to take a step back and WITNESS our pain, rather than BEING our pain. We see that we are not our pain, but rather that it is one part of our experience and we can shift back to a fuller sense of ourselves and this moment in time and place.

Guidelines:

• Grounding can be done any time, any place, anywhere, and no one has to know.

• Use grounding when you are faced with a trigger, activated, enraged, terrified, dissociating, having urges to drink, hurt yourself, restrict food, or whenever your emotional pain goes above 6 (on a 0- 10 scale). Grounding puts a healthy distance between you and these negative feelings/impulses.

• Keep your eyes open, scan the room, and turn the light on to stay in touch with the present.

• Rate your mood before and after grounding, to test whether it worked. Before grounding, rate your level of emotional pain (0-10, where 10 means “extreme pain”). Then re-rate it afterward. Has it gone down?

• No talking about negative feelings or journal writing—you want to distract away from negative feelings, not get in touch with them.

• Stay neutral—avoid judgements of “good” and “bad.” For example, instead of “The walls are blue; I dislike blue because it reminds me of depression,” simply say “The walls are blue” and move on.

• Focus on the present, not the past or future.

• Note that grounding is not the same as relaxation training. Grounding is much more active, focuses on distraction strategies, and is intended to help manage extreme negative feelings and sensations. It is believed to be more effective than relaxation training for trauma recovery.

Adapted from Seeking Safety by Lisa M. Najavits (2002), Guilford Pres

General Ways of Grounding

• Go outside and find a large rock, tree, or patch of earth. Sit on it, making a conscious intention to feel fully what you are sitting on.

• Put your hand over your heart and a hand over your belly and breathe deeply, and feel the connections of your hands with your body.

• Walk, allowing yourself to feel your feet on the earth. The human body immediately responds to direct contact with the ground, shifting to a neutral ionic state, which is calming. If it is difficult to feel the connection by walking, try stomping.

• Pray. Ask for guidance, grounding, and strength. Have others pray for you. Be specific. Ask for the qualities and resources that you need.

• Eat something (not sugar or caffeine as they can have the opposite effect). Some people report that meat, salt, or root vegetables are particularly grounding foods.

• Wash your hands or take a hot shower, focusing closely on the sensations of water.

• Look around you. Let your senses firmly anchor you where you are. Find 4 things you can see, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste. If you are in a flashback, affirm to yourself the objects around you that were not there at the time of the traumatic event(s).

• If you have access to safe animals, be with them. Physically be in touch with your pets. Horses can be particularly grounding.

• Physical contact with another human being who is safe for you may be helpful. Sometimes human contact can be UNgrounding if the source of your trauma was through some kind of touch. Otherwise, safe touch, like hugging, holding hands, or sitting closely while the other person is grounded can help you find that place of connection.

• Aromatherapy. Find a pleasant, fairly strong essential oil that you can put in a diffuser or even just on a cotton ball under your nose.

Pick a few of these and/or other ways you have found to ground. The first thing to go when we get ungrounded, is the ability to remember what helps us! So, post the list somewhere you can easily access it, like your medicine cabinet, refrigerator, first aid kit, handback, backpack, or car.

Adapted from The Trauma Toolkit: Healing PTSD from the Inside Out by Susan Pease Banitt, LCSW (2012), Quest Books

Mental Grounding

• Describe your environment in detail. Find all the triangles in the room. Find all the primary colors in the room.

• Play a “categories” game with yourself. Types of trees, state capitals, names of presidents, world wonders, songs, tv shows. Say an animal for every letter of the alphabet.

• Do an age progression. If you are feeling young and vulnerable, identify what age you may have been pulled to, bring yourself back step by step by telling yourself “I am now 9, I am now 10, I am now 11). When you arrive at your current chronological age, remind yourself that you are in an adult body with allies and actions you can take.

• Imagine. Use and image to move away from the distress. Glide away on skates, fly away, change the tv channel, put the scene on a movie screen, see a wall as a buffer between you and your pain.

• Say a safety statement. “You are safe right now. You are in the present, not the past. You are located in __________. The date is ____________. The time is _____________.”

• Read something aloud to yourself. Or read letters backwards.

• Use humor. Think of something funny to jolt yourself out of your mood. Watch a funny you tube clip.

• Count or say the alphabet very s…..l…..o…..w…..l……y. Or count backwards by 3’s from 100. Say an animal for every letter of the alphabet. Count shapes in the room.

Physical Grounding

• Run cool or warm water over your hands.

• Take a long hot shower or bath.

• Touch various objects around you: Find 4 things you can see, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell, and one thing you can taste.

• Grab tightly onto your chair as hard as you can.

• Carry a grounding object in your pocket or bag. A small object (a rock, clay, a ring, a piece of soft cloth or yarn) that you can touch whenever you feel triggered).

• Jump up and down.

• Pat your body from head to toe.

• Notice your body: the weight of your body in the hair, wiggling your toes, feel your back against the chair. You are connected to the world.

• Stretch. Extend your fingers, arms, or legs as far as you can; roll you head forward from one shoulder to another. Move in whatever way the body wants.

• Clench and release your fists, then arms, then legs.

• Walk slowly, noticing each footstep, saying “left” or “right” with each step.

• Eat something, describing the flavors. Try something very tart or sour or spicy.

• Focus on your breathing, noticing each inhale and exhale. Repeat a word to yourself on each inhale (e.g., favorite color, or soothing word such as “safe, secure, here now.”

Soothing Grounding

• Coach yourself through it. Say kind, compassionate, and encouraging words to yourself, as if you were talking to a small child—for example, “You are a good person going through a hard time. You will get through this.”

• Think of favorites. Your favorite color, animal, season, food, time of day, tv shows, super heroes, authors.

• Picture people or pets you care about (e.g., your children, your dog or cat or other animal, your friend or partner). Keep a photograph of them handy and remember a good time you had with them.

• Remember a secure place. Describe a place you find very soothing. It could be a place you have been or could imagine being (beach, mountains, favorite room). Focus on everything about that place (sounds, colors, shapes, smells, textures, temperature, weather, sensations you experience there).

• Say a coping statement: “You can handle this. This feeling will pass.”

• Plan a safe treat for yourself, such as a dessert, nice dinner, or warm bath.

• Thing of things you are looking forward to in the next week.

What if Grounding Doesn’t Work?

• Grounding does work! But, like any other skill, you need to practice to make it a powerful as possible. Your brain and nervous system want to learn! Teach your body and mind how to change the patterns of activation and responding. Here are some suggestions to help grounding work for you.

• Practice as often as possible, even when you don’t need it, so that you and your body will have it memorized.

• Practice faster. Speeding up the pace gets you focused on the outside world quickly.

• Try grounding for a LOOOOOOOONNNNNGGGG time (20-30 minutes). And repeat, repeat, repeat.

• Try to notice which methods you like best—which ones work in what ways? Does one work at a better time or situation? Does the type of trigger matter?

• Create your own methods of grounding. Any way you can, anything that works, any combination. Your personal approach will be more powerful than any.

• Catch it early! Start grounding early in a negative mood cycle. Start as soon as you notice a negative thought or trigger and before emotions take over.

• Make up an index card on which you list your best grounding methods and how long to use them.

• Have others assist you in grounding. Teach friends or family about grounding, so that they can help guide you with it if you become overwhelmed.

• Prepare in advance. Locate places at home, in your car, at work or school where you have materials and reminders for grounding.

• Create an audio of a grounding message. That you can play when needed. Consider asking your therapist or someone close to you to record it if you want to hear someone else’s voice.

• Pay attention to your own process, especially after you have successfully grounded. Seeing the benefits and effects helps us learn and stay motivated.

• Don’t give up!