Grounding
Grounding is about bringing your attention back to the here‑and‑now, especially when you feel overwhelmed, anxious, spaced‑out, or pulled into bad memories.It helps your mind and body remember, “I am in this moment, in this place, and I am safer than my feelings suggest.”
What grounding is
Grounding techniques are simple actions that connect you to your body, your senses, and your surroundings.
They are often used with anxiety, panic, trauma reactions, and strong emotions to reduce intensity and help you feel more stable and present.
When grounding helps
Grounding is useful when you notice things like:
- Racing thoughts, spiralling “what if” thinking
- Feeling detached, unreal, or “not here”
- Strong flashbacks or emotional waves that feel too big
- Urges to self‑harm, use substances, or act impulsively
The aim is not to erase feelings but to turn the volume down enough so you can think and choose; to take back control, and reduce confusion.
Simple body-based techniques
5–4–3–2–1 senses exercise
- Look for 5 things you can see,
- 4 you can feel (chair, clothes, floor),
- 3 you can hear,
- 2 you can smell,
- 1 you can taste.
Say them in your head or out loud; go slowly enough to really notice each one. This help if you are mindful enough to notice your balance starting to spiral into dangerous areas. It is a simple distraction technique, combined with focus and attention on the distraction, in order for you to become more focussed on what is around you.
Feet on the Earth technique
- Sit or stand, in nature, with bare feet making contact with the natural Earth.
- Feel your racing thoughts diminish, as you feel that calming influence of nature
- Start paying more attention to the nature around you.
- Find something of beauty, and allow yourself to appreciate it.
- Let that appreciation deepen to gratitude, for that positive feeling you are starting to feel.
This is a classic grounding technique, one which you can practice, right now, before you need it, as something you do regularly. Perhaps as part of building your Happy Place
Temperature reset technique
Often, it is the physical body that shows signs of stress; by overheating, for example. We can often feel much better, simply by taking steps to cool down:
Hold something cool (metal, a glass of water) or splash cool water on your face.
Focus on the sensation for 20–30 seconds.
If it helps, try a cool bath meditation, or perhaps rest under a shady tree.
Asymmetric Breathing for Calmness
Breathe in for 3 counts, hold for 2, and breathe out for 4, hold empty for 2, repeat until calmness returns. This technique can be very effective as controlling panic attacks and other anxiety attacks.
Simple mind-based techniques
Name the moment
Say (out loud if you can): “I am having a strong feeling / memory. It is uncomfortable, but it is not happening right now.”
Then add additional details that come to mind: today’s date, where you are, and things you can see.
Form your narrative: This helps build clarity, by allowing you to describe your in-the-now feelings, and is part of a technique called “Rogers’ Onion Technique”.
Here, the idea is simply to contemplate how those memories influence you, and to help you think logically and rationally about them. We look to cope, by better understanding ourselves. Self description, one layer of the “onion”, at a time, is one way to do this.
Describe the room
Alternatively, you can look around you, and see which objects stand out to you, and why?
Calmly list details around you: colours, shapes, objects, “There is a blue chair, a wooden table, a window on my left…”
The goal is to anchor your attention outside your head, but also to see what symbols your inner world is matching as patterns. Some of these may be gentle triggers, others my give comfort.
Happy or Safe-place technique
This technique involves creating in your mind a place where you feel safe, a place to retreat to, that is a form of escape. It takes time to build this. Often, within it, you take on an alter ego; a strong person that has no fear and feels few threats. A future you, that can help you see a future for you, that may be currently a dream you dare not explore.
See our new lesson; Setting up Your Happy Place for more details of this.
Practical tips for using grounding
- Practice these grounding techniques before you need them
- Try to engage them, when you are “only a little” stressed, so it is easier to avoid becoming very distressed.
- Choose 2–3 techniques that feel natural and keep them “ready” in your mind or written on a card.
If one method doesn’t help, switch to another (for example, from thinking‑based to body‑based). - Combine grounding with basic self-care: drink water, move a little, and, if possible, talk to someone supportive.
When to seek extra support
Grounding is a coping tool, not a full treatment. If you often feel overwhelmed, dissociated, have frequent flashbacks, or struggle to stay safe, talking with a mental health professional can help you build a broader plan.
Grounding then becomes one part of a wider toolkit, not something you have to rely on alone.
References
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