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.
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.
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.
– 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.
When you are practicing, there is not talking about negative feelings as you are trying to distract yourself from them.
Grounding:
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.
