Grounding Techniques

Grounding techniques:

The most effective way for you to ground yourself is to connect to all five senses: sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste – preferably with objects that represent your current reality – together with your imagination.

This means you need to focus on objects and stimuli in the present rather than the past. To make grounding techniques work, you will need to personalise these by making them unique to you.

Most importantly try to practice and rehearse these techniques so that they become familiar and automatic when you are in distress or overwhelmed. Grounding techniques will also help you to regulate your mood and emotional distress and allow you to confront feelings rather than avoid them. Remember that the more you avoid overwhelming feelings the more intense the emotional distress will become.

Grounding smells

Try to identify comforting grounding smells such as a favourite scent or aftershave sprayed onto a scarf or fabric, spices such as vanilla, or cinnamon, or a lavender bag, a scented candle or that of a favourite food such, as chocolate. Alternatively, you could try a stimulating smell such as mint, lemon zest or pepper.

Grounding images

Try to develop a grounding image. If possible, try to make this image interactive. You could imagine a secluded garden and make it interactive by walking around it. Describe it as you stroll around, smell and name each flower out loud, listen to the fountain, and touch the leaves and grass. Alternatively, you could create a luxury home and imagine yourself walking from room to room touching and naming all the beautiful objects you have. Or you could visualise a luxury car and imagine looking at and touching the interior, as well as the engine. The more pleasant the images are, the easier it will be to recall them.

Try to support this image by collecting relevant pictures or vivid drawings that can be put into an album or a collage. Remember to practice your grounding image daily so that it becomes automatic and can easily be recalled when necessary. To help you get to your grounding image or safe place, you need to create a ‘bridging image’. This could involve imagining yourself floating away from the uncomfortable feelings or traumatic reaction to your safe place or imagining yourself describing your safe place to a trusted friend or taking them there or opening a door to reveal your safe place.

Grounding phrases

These can be supported with grounding phrases such as ‘I am OK’ or ‘I am strong, I have survived. I am safe’. Remember to personalise these phrases using your own unique voice. To help you remember your grounding phrases send them via a voice message to yourself and store it on your mobile phone.

Alternatively, write it on a post it note and stick it somewhere where you can see it. An elaboration of this could be identifying a grounding song that symbolises your courage which you can play on your smartphone and sing along to.

Grounding body position

It is also helpful to find a comforting, grounding body position in which you feel safe and strong. This could be curling up in a with a favourite blanket, or standing up straight and tall with shoulders back to make you feel strong and powerful. Or you could tense and untense your muscles and feel your strength course through your body.

Try to experiment with a number of positions to find which is the most comforting or empowering for you and practice these whenever you can. Controlling your body in this way can be an effective way to regulate mood as well remaining embodied.

Grounding hobby

Finally, consider finding a grounding hobby in which you can immerse yourself such as painting, playing a musical instrument, doing a crossword or sudoku, or collecting something meaningful to you. This will not only absorb you until overwhelming feelings subside, but it can also restore pleasure and fun into your daily life.

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