How Grounding Can Calm Anxiety & Increase Clarity
Grounding is a technique that can help pull you out of spiraling thoughts by using your 5 senses to focus attention only on what is happening in the present moment - increasing safety and diffusing anxiety
I love to experiment with all the tools and strategies I help clients learn - there’s nothing I suggest doing that I don’t also do myself.
About 6 months ago, I started a simple grounding exercise - using my 5 senses to orient my mind to what’s happening right in front of me in the present - every morning during my quiet coffee time. (Side note - if you’re not a morning person, like me, I highly recommend waking early and starting the day quietly. I feel like this is a hard sell for most people, but it truly makes a world of difference in how much anxiety or overwhelm you experience throughout the day).
I wake up, get my coffee, and open up the blinds so I can watch the sunrise over the mountains. Then I intentionally focus my attention on the present moment and what’s happening right in front of me, playing a game to name the colors unfolding against the sky in as much detail as possible. Every morning is something different - one day might be sky blue, soft pink, and violet… then the next it’s navy, magenta, and lavender. I never noticed this until I started focusing on it on purpose.
It’s kind of a fun game, but more than that it has been surprisingly transformative. I tend to wake up with my mind very full, and this instantly brings a feeling of calm and quiet. After a few minutes, a sense of immense gratitude washes over me and I feel very aware of positive things. My breathing slows, my body relaxes, my mind settles. It has changed the course of my days.
Our minds can get caught in time travel - going too far into the future with worries about things that haven’t happened, or back to the past ruminating on things that are already over
This time traveling, as I call it, will always spike anxiety. It takes your mind out of the realm of what is actually happening right in front of you in the moment and what’s within your control, to things that feel overwhelming and out of control. Pulling your mind back to the present allows you to reorient to safety - usually when you notice what is happening right in front of you, right now, it’s objectively safe and nothing bad is happening in this moment.
Grounding quiets your mind because your brain can’t do two things at once - time travel and notice what’s happening in the present. Once time traveling stops, anxiety quiets down and perspective shifts.
Grounding is a quick and simple way to calm and reset your nervous system - so that your brain and body feel safe again
A few of the most commonly used and most effective grounding techniques are…
5-4-3-2-1
The 5-4-3-2-1 technique literally uses your 5 senses to pull your attention back into the present. Try it now…
Name 5 things you can see right in front of you… 4 things you can touch that are near you… 3 things you hear around you… 2 things you can smell… and one thing you can taste.
How do you feel? What are you thinking about? Usually… nothing. Your mind is left calmer and more clear to move forward with what you need to do next.
Physical Actions
Tuning into body sensations can shift focus and reorient you to the present. This could be holding an ice cube and noticing the sensation of cold, pressing your back into a chair or feet into the floor and noticing where you feel sensations, or tensing and releasing different muscle groups while focusing on each part of your body. Using your sense of taste (a strong mint or sour candy), or your sense of smell (an essential oil or favorite scent), can also immediately ground you in the moment.
Counting
Counting can be a surprisingly effective way to quiet your mind and come back to the present. Counting steps while you pace, counting in time to music while you drive, counting backwards from 100 by 7’s… it tends to work because your mind can’t do two things at once, count and time travel at the same time.
These are just starting points, there are many ways to ground yourself in the present to calm an overstimulated nervous system and quiet an anxious mind. You can experiment to see what works for you. I always say that nervous system calming techniques like grounding won’t solve the whole problem of managing anxiety, but they can help put you back in control of anxiety so that it’s not as overwhelming. Therapy can help with the deeper work of resolving what’s at the root of anxiety so that it doesn’t always feel like you’re forever having to just manage it.
