The Reasons We Love Grounding Techniques for Stress & Anxiety
Stress and anxiety are notorious for causing or worsening depression, chronic pain, insomnia, social isolation, substance abuse, etc. The effects of anxiety are far-reaching, and one has to be proactive to stop it in its tracks before it does any damage. One effective way to eliminate stress before it consumes you is by performing grounding techniques.
Grounding techniques help refocus your mind on what is happening in the present moment, not the harmful thoughts or memories causing an episode. In other words, grounding techniques are a distraction to help your brain ignore or create space from anxiety-causing experiences, replacing them with healthy, safer experiences.
Grounding techniques can help people dealing with traumatic memories, anxiety, PTSD, self-harm inclinations, and dissociation. We love grounding techniques because they work. Therapists often recommend physical or mental grounding techniques to patients with anxiety-related conditions, and there’s widespread evidence that it works.
Helpful Tip: Go outside, stand in the grass with bare feet, feel the earth, and watch the sun and all of the nature around you.
Here are more reasons we love grounding techniques.
Table of Contents
The Benefits of Grounding Techniques for Stress and Anxiety
Helps You Stay Calm
This is the most apparent benefit of grounding techniques. When you’re stressed and anxious, your mind races, your heart palpitates, and your body vibrates; if you do nothing, the condition will worsen.
But the moment you interrupt your thoughts by focusing your five senses on the things in your immediate environment, you will begin to retake control and feel better. Your body will become calm as your brain receives the message to detach itself from hurtful thoughts and focus instead on wholesome, real-world experiences. The calming effects of grounding techniques can carry on throughout your day, and you will find that situations that are typically stressful will become less stressful.
Helps You Sleep Better
People who have insomnia can’t sleep because their minds often wonder when to go to bed. They find themselves thinking about several things, and as long as the brain is active, they will not fall asleep. So the best thing to do is block those thoughts by introducing grounding techniques.
There are grounding techniques that help improve sleep, and one popular one is the 5-4-3-2-1 technique. It is a mindfulness exercise that engages your five senses and turns your focus from the present moment, and allows you to be in control of your thoughts. Here’s how to do this exercise:
Identify these things in your room or anywhere you are:
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can touch
- Three things you can hear
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
This practice works if you follow it to a tee. When you get to “one thing, you can taste,” your mind should be distracted entirely from any anxious thoughts.
Improves Your Mood
When you experience bouts of emotional distress and anxiety pangs, you’re not in a good mood. And if not handled properly, it could degenerate into something dire such as self-harm. Grounding techniques can remove all that stress and bad blood, replacing it with an easy-going, happy mood. How?
When you apply a soothing grounding technique, you feel safe and in control, bringing back normalcy and lightening your mood. One grounding technique you can use to improve your mood is to describe the beauty you see around you – the alluring greenery, the bright-shining lights, the bookshelf with your favorite books, the new clothes a friend got for you – just about anything that makes you feel good.
Remember to use your words and make yourself connect to those things.
Helps You Stay Sober
Substance abuse is prevalent in our world today. One study shows that almost 20% of people over 12 have misused prescription drugs or taken illegal drugs. If you’re a victim and trying to break free, grounding techniques can help.
Here’s a grounding technique you can use – imagine your thoughts about abusing drugs as something you detest (like a song) and turn down the volume or change the channel. Essentially, you’re replacing the thoughts edging you to substance abuse with thoughts that deride and dislodge the act.
Reduces or Prevents Pain
Whether you’re experiencing fits of anxiety or other mental disorder, you will have to deal with the pain it creates. For example, anxiety attacks cause discomfort, including chest pain caused by muscle contractions; these can interrupt your breathing and leave your chest hurting days after the event.
With grounding techniques, you can prevent yourself from experiencing stress and anxiety-induced pain. As you focus on the “here and now” and not the negative signals parsing through your mind, you take back control from whatever might induce pain.
For instance, your mind might attempt to take you to a moment in your life where you failed at something, which could lead to feelings of regret and hurt. Instead of going on that dreadful journey, refocus your mind on the successes you’ve had. Remind yourself that you have come a long way and done well.
You don’t have to experience the pain if you can interrupt the pain inducer.
Helps Improve Confidence
Stress and anxiety disorders can affect your confidence levels and leave you feeling like you’re not good enough. That mindset or emotional state can have a bearing on your physical outlook. For example, you may find that you’re not standing straight and walking with your shoulders high or cringing – not wanting to be seen or making yourself small and scarce. That’s what your emotional state can do to your body.
The good thing is that you can facilitate this process reverse; you can make your body and posture affect your mind with a grounding technique.
Use your posture to regain power over any negative thought or situation weighing you down. To do this grounding exercise, stretch yourself tall and keep your head up, then say, “I am happy,” “I feel good,” and “I am better today than I was yesterday.”
You see, the brain and the body are connected, and when your body is in an upright position and you make those affirmations, you will feel good. You will feel a confidence boost, and stress or anxiety will have nothing on you.
You have successfully replaced negative, burdensome thoughts with a posture and affirmations that will lighten your mood again.
Relaxation Techniques
Progressive muscle relaxation is a simple technique therapists use to make a mind and body connection.
Start by taking a deep breath and feel your chest expand fully, and you may even feel a good stretch in your chest.
Take three to five breaths through your nose and out through your mouth.
I recommend doing this with your eyes closed to do a complete body scan and figure out where you will need the most help releasing tension. For example, suppose you like to listen to calming music or sounds. In that case, I recommend using a guided meditation app to help you focus on completing this technique and alleviate the unhelpful racing thoughts.
Start by tightening up your toes and feet and holding them for a few seconds; take a deep breath, and release the tension in your feet as you breathe out. Next, do this with your calves, tighten them up and flex them, take a deep breath, and breathe out as you relax. Do this with everybody group: quads/ hamstrings, abdomen, back, arms, face, etc. Finally, when you get to your face, clench up every muscle and hold it for 5-10 seconds and then release feeling the calming sensation.
This is something you can do while sitting or laying down, and when you feel mentally drained, you can do this to relax your body and mind.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, grounding exercises are a great way to reduce stress and anxiety, help you feel more in control of your emotional response, and increase gratitude. Remember that you can do them wherever you are; just find a calm, quiet place to do them.
Originally posted 2022-05-15 05:41:39.
Megan Santiago
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