Handout: What is Grounding?
EMOTIONAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL GROUNDING
What Is Grounding?
Emotional/psychological grounding is a set of simple strategies to manage strong emotions when these threaten to overwhelm us and disrupt our functioning.
We can think of emotional grounding as a distraction, or a method for centering ourselves in the present by looking outwardly. Grounding is a way of staying focused on the here and now during an emotional storm.
How is Grounding Helpful?
The capacity to manage strong feelings is developed in childhood. Children who experience trauma are not afforded the opportunity to develop this essential capacity. As adults, these individuals struggle with either feeling too much (overwhelming feelings or memories) or too little (numbing, detachment, dissociation). Their inability to effectively manage strong feelings creates a “problem” for them. In an effort to resolve this problem, these individuals often resort to extremes. For example they might engage in self-injury, substance abuse, and other problematic behaviors. Although these behaviors provide some immediate relief, it is brief and temporary, and the behaviors themselves compromise the individual’s functioning. They become self-defeating in the long run and aggravate an already critical situation.
Grounding techniques effectively focus the attention outwardly on the external world and away from strong internal experiences (emotions or memories) when these exceed your natural capacity to cope.
Grounding helps you achieve balance between feeling too much and feeling too little. It helps you remain aware of your immediate surroundings while allowing you to tolerate your internal experience. Grounding anchors you to the present and to reality and reduces the intensity of the internal experience.
Strong emotions tend also to escalate into unmanageable internal experiences when fueled by negative thoughts, images and judgments. Grounding cuts through this self-feeding loop and allows the opportunity to regain your emotional composure. Grounding brings you back to the here and now.
Managing strong emotions means to be able to modulate their intensity to a tolerable level before they become overwhelming. As long as you can remain centered you will be able tolerate a moderate level of any emotion. The capacity to manage your emotions helps you in turn to stay safe. You will not need to resort to the use of substances or self-injurious behaviors in order to gain control of these emotions.
Grounding Strategies
Describe your environment in detail using all your senses. For example: “the wall is blue” (sight), “cars outside honk their horns” (hearing), “the table feels cold under my hand” (touch), etc. Describe objects, sounds, texture, colors, smells, shapes, numbers and temperature. You can do this anywhere. For example in the bus or while you wait for lunch at the take-out counter. “I am walking across the street, I see cars of many colors, the traffic light is blinking red, I hear someone call a taxi, I am hot and sweaty, I feel the humid air against my skin, I feel thirsty…etc.”
Think of “favorites”: your favorite food, color, animal, season, time of day.
Play a “categories” game with yourself. Try to list categories of “dogs,” “musicians,” “cars,” “TV shows,” “sports,” “books” etc.
Do an age progression (not a regression). If you feel regressed (as if you are suddenly much younger than you actually are--a child when you are an adult), you can slowly work your way up to your actual age (progression). For example: if you feel like a 7 year old child, begin saying to yourself “I am now 8,” “I am now 9,” “I am now 10” until you return to your current age.
Describe an everyday activity in great detail. For example: doing dishes or washing laundry, or cooking a meal. “I sort dirty clothes into white, dark and color piles, I place the each item in the washing machine, I pour liquid laundry soap, I push the wash cycle button.”
Use your imagination to develop fantasy. For example fantasize that you are on your roller blades gliding away from the strong emotion and as you look back the emotion becomes smaller and smaller the further away you skate. Imagine that your strong emotion or memory is being displayed on a TV screen and fantasize changing the channel to a more comfortable show. Imagine that your painful memories of the past are inscribed on a book that you can close and put away on a shelf when the feelings get too activated. Imagine that you close the book gently, that you get up from the table where you were reading it and walk away from the room gently closing the door behind you.
Describe to yourself a place in which you feel very safe. It could be outdoors or indoors, in a natural setting such as the beach or forest or in a safe room in a safe location such as your therapist’s office. Focus your attention on every detail about that place: the sounds, textures, colors, objects, etc.
Repeat safety statements. For example “My name is such and such; I am safe right now. I am in the present not in the past. At this very moment I am located at such and such place and I am safe here. Today’s date is such and such and I live in such a such place in such and such city, county, country, etc.”
Read something repeating each word slowly to yourself. Read a sentence or word backwards, so that you focus on the letters rather than on its meaning. Repeat your social security number very slowly and repeat it backwards.
Repeat the words of a favorite poem or song that makes you feel stronger and courageous.
Repeat a favorite quote, a meaningful saying or a prayer to yourself over and over paying attention to its rhythm or cadence, say it slowly then speed up the tempo, etc.
Count to 10 or repeat the alphabet very slowly.
Focus your breathing noticing each exhalation and inhalation. Breathe slowly through your nose. Inhale deeply to the count of three then exhale slowly to the count of seven. Repeat a soothing word or sentence with each of the three inhalations, such as “I am safe” or “clear mind, clear mind, clear mind.” As you exhale imagine your worries, tensions, fears, emotional pain, etc., being expelled out of you along with the air from your lungs.
Run cool or warm water on your hands.
Grab tightly onto your chair, as hard as you can.
Touch and compare various objects around you. For example: keys, pens, a table, wall, etc. Compare their differences and similarities, color, texture, temperature, weight, etc.
Plant your feet firmly on the ground, literally “grounding” yourself. Notice the tension centered on your heel, the ball of the foot, the calves. If possible take off your shoes, walk outside onto the grass or the cool floor. Remind yourself you are connected to the world.
Carry “grounding objects” in your pocket such as a small, smooth rock, a piece of cloth or yarn, which you can touch whenever you feel triggered.
Do physical exercises and stretches. Jump up and down. Extend your fingers, arms or legs as far as you can; turn your head around being mindful of your neck muscles.
Become aware of your presence in the room. Notice the weight of your body on the chair, the pressure of your back against the chair, the texture of the materials that touch your skin. Wiggle your toes inside your shoes.
Clench and release your fists.
Walk slowly noticing each footstep saying “left” “right” with each step. Notice the kinetic motion of your muscles as you walk, the sounds, colors, shapes and objects of the world around you as you walk, the swing of your arms, etc.
Guidelines
Use grounding in any place and at any time. The techniques are not obvious and no one need notice or know.
Use grounding when you are faced with an emotional trigger, are having a flashback, are feeling disconnected or dissociated, or having a substance craving.
Use grounding early in the negative mood cycle before it has a chance to escalate out of control. For example: start when the substance craving just starts or when you begin to feel frightened or agitated, or as soon as you realize you are dissociated.
Rate the strength of your feeling (pain, anxiety, fear, etc.) on a scale of 1-10. One being “neutral” and ten “flooded.” When your feeling feels at a “6,” it is a red flag to exercise some grounding.
Practice grounding as often as possible. Practice especially during periods of calm when you do not “need” it. Practice allows you to activate grounding techniques quickly and automatically shortly after you become aware of the impending emotional storm.
Practice grounding for extended periods at a time (20-30 minutes). Repeated practice has a cumulative effect in acquiring the capacity to manage feelings.
Keep your eyes open, scan the room, and turn the light on to stay in touch with the present surroundings. While grounding, stick to the facts and do not elaborate on your emotional reactions to these facts. For example: when describing your surroundings simply say “the rug is blue” rather than “the rug is blue and I dislike blue because it reminds me of (something scary).”
Remain as neutral as possible avoiding judgments of “good” or “bad.” The goal is to develop new coping skills in emotional management. There is no perfect one way of doing it. Rather it is a slow process that requires some practice.
Focus on the present, not on the past or on the future. Try to determine how is the present different from the past. For example: recall some activity or task that you can perform now that you could not do in the past. For example: you can read and write today, but you could not as a child; you can find your way in the city and pay your bills today, but you could not do these things as a child, etc.
Grounding techniques are not the same as relaxation exercises. Grounding is an ”active” activity in which you remain alert and aware of the outside world. Relaxation focuses on a more passive letting go of mental and muscular tension and looking inward to calm the mind.
Create your own method of grounding yourself. The strategies that you create become an integral part of you much faster and feel more natural than any you read here because they are tailored to you and fit perfectly in the context of your own life.
Grounding Exercise
BODY SCAN
In this exercise, you will be asked to use your hands and gently touch different parts of your body. Don't rush this process. Take your time moving from each part of your body. As you do this, just notice how each part of your body feels. Be reminded of the role each body part plays in helping us move around throughout the day.
Begin by bringing your attention to your feet.
Notice the soles of your feet by pushing them gently towards the ground beneath you.
Gently touch your toes, the top of your feet, and the back of your ankles.
Once you have a made a strong connection with your feet you may then move your attention upwards to your ankle... then switch focus to your lower legs, onto your knee caps, behind your knees, your thighs, and so on.
Allow yourself to breathe throughout the scanning process, especially as you come to any areas of discomfort (stressed muscles, soreness, etc.) or at any spot that feels like there may be an energy block.
Once you have moved through your torso and up to your neck, drop back down to your fingertips, move your attention to the hands, up your arms and shoulders, returning your attention once again to your neck before finishing up with your focus on face and scalp.
Finish the exercise by taking a deep, slow breath.