What is Grounding?

Grounding is a set of simple strategies that can help to detach ourselves from emotional pain such as sadness, anger, being overwhelmed by too many thoughts in one’s head, flashbacks, drug cravings, or self-harm impulses. Grounding is a self-soothing skill that helps keep you in the present and orients you back to the here and now. By directing your attention outward to the external world instead of yourself, you are able to be distracted by the emotional pain you may be experiencing, and it brings you back into reality. Detaching from the emotional pain allows us to regain control over our emotions and behaviors, and helps keep us safe. When we are grounding we are not able to engage in any unhealthy coping skill and hopefully by the time you have finished grounding yourself, the emotion or urge has also passed. Grounding anchors us into the present moment which can be particularly challenging for individuals with
PTSD or substance abuse struggles. Grounding helps us find the tolerate either numbing out/ dissociating or being overwhelmed by our emotions.

Benefits of grounding

- Reduces Stress and Improves Emotion Regulation: Grounding allows us to regulate our emotional response, think more clearly about what is happening, manage anxiety, and help cultivate a greater sense of calmness and serenity. Grounding has been linked to experiencing more pleasant moments, feeling more positive, feeling less negative, and feeling more relaxed.

- Enhanced Mental Clarity and Focus: Grounding has the potential to clear mental fog and improve cognitive functioning. When we ground it quiets the mind, enhances concentration, and fosters mental clarity.

- Increased Emotional Resilience: Grounding strengthens our emotional resilience which allows us to navigate life’s challenges with greater ease. By fostering a sense of stability and connection, grounding provides a solid foundation from which we can adapt and respond to stressors more effectively.

- Improves Sleep and Restorative Healing: Grounding has been found to promote better sleep quality which facilitates the restoration of both the mind and body. Restful sleep leads to improved mood, cognitive function, and overall well-being.

- Regulates the Nervous System: Grounding has a positive impact on the nervous system by promoting a shift from a heightened sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) activity to a more balanced state that includes the activation of the ventral vagal pathway (rest and digest response).

HOW TO PRACTICE GROUDNING

The best part of practicing grounding exercises is that they can be done anywhere, at any time, and no one has to know. Grounding will be most helpful when you are faced with emotional pain, overwhelmed by thoughts in your head, when you need to reconnect to the present moment, when triggered, having a flashback, dissociating, having substance craving, or urge to engage in self-harm. When grounding it is important to keep your eyes open as we are connecting with the external world. It can sometimes be helpful to rate your emotional pain on a scale of 1-10 before and after you ground, that way you are able to notice the difference. When you are practicing, there is not talking about negative feelings as you are trying to distract yourself from them. Additionally, you will want to try and stay neutral. This means we are not judging ourselves or the things around us, we are simply observing (i.e. “I am noticing my emotions are more intense than they were one minute ago.” “The sky is blue.” “I am sitting in a room.”).

Grounding Exercises:

1. Categories: Choose a category (i.e. animals, fruits, veggies, places, types of cereal, etc.) and go through the alphabet trying to come up with something for each letter. Example: Fruits- Apples, Blueberries, Cherries, Dates, Eggplant, Figs...Zucchini

2. Describing in Detail: Describe the environment you are in using as much detail as possible. Example: I am sitting on a white plastic chair that has four gold legs and white padding for where you sit. In front of me I see a light wood desk that has four wooden legs and one small drawer with a hole cut out of it. On top of my desk I can see 5 books, three have a white cover, one has a blue cover, and one has a red cover, etc.

3. 5 Senses: Use your senses to help bring you to the present moment by naming 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch (and name their texture), 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste.

4. Connecting to the Earth: Walk barefoot and notice what that feels like, lying on the ground, use water by submerging yourself in it (i.e. pool, lake, ocean) or by simply running cool water over your wrists. The goal here is to simply connect yourself with the literal Earth.

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References:

Chevalier G. The effect of grounding the human body on mood. Psychol Rep. 2015 Apr;116(2):534-42. doi: 10.2466/06.PR0.116k21w5. Epub 2015 Mar 6. PMID: 25748085.

Lockett, E. (n.d.). Grounding: Exploring Earthing Science and the Benefits Behind It. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding#types

Najavits, L. M. (2002). Seeking safety: A treatment manual for PTSD and substance abuse. Guilford Press.