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    What Is Grounding?: Hope 24/7 Handout

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    Popescu Andreea
    Grounding is a set of distraction techniques used to decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection to the present moment. It involves using the five senses to name and list things in one's surroundings. Examples of grounding techniques include mental activities like naming categories or describing tasks in detail, physical activities like running water over hands or tensing/releasing muscles, and soothing activities like saying kind words to oneself. Practicing grounding regularly, even when not distressed, and creating a personalized grounding plan can help make the techniques an effective coping strategy when emotional pain arises.

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    What Is Grounding?: Hope 24/7 Handout

    Uploaded by

    Popescu Andreea
    311 views4 pages
    Grounding is a set of distraction techniques used to decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection to the present moment. It involves using the five senses to name and list things in one's surroundings. Examples of grounding techniques include mental activities like naming categories or describing tasks in detail, physical activities like running water over hands or tensing/releasing muscles, and soothing activities like saying kind words to oneself. Practicing grounding regularly, even when not distressed, and creating a personalized grounding plan can help make the techniques an effective coping strategy when emotional pain arises.

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    Grounding

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    Hope247Handout

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    Grounding is a set of distraction techniques used to decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection to the present moment. It involves using the five senses to name and list things in one's surroundings. Examples of grounding techniques include mental activities like naming categories or describing tasks in detail, physical activities like running water over hands or tensing/releasing muscles, and soothing activities like saying kind words to oneself. Practicing grounding regularly, even when not distressed, and creating a personalized grounding plan can help make the techniques an effective coping strategy when emotional pain arises.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    311 views4 pages

    What Is Grounding?: Hope 24/7 Handout

    Uploaded by

    Popescu Andreea
    Grounding is a set of distraction techniques used to decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection to the present moment. It involves using the five senses to name and list things in one's surroundings. Examples of grounding techniques include mental activities like naming categories or describing tasks in detail, physical activities like running water over hands or tensing/releasing muscles, and soothing activities like saying kind words to oneself. Practicing grounding regularly, even when not distressed, and creating a personalized grounding plan can help make the techniques an effective coping strategy when emotional pain arises.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
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    The key takeaways are that grounding techniques can help decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection to the present moment by using distraction and focusing on the senses. Grounding can be done anywhere and involves focusing on the surroundings, body sensations, and coping thoughts.

    Some examples of mental grounding techniques mentioned are playing a 'categories' game to list types of objects, describing everyday tasks in detail, imagining changing TV channels, saying a safety statement, and reading out loud slowly.

    Some examples of physical grounding techniques mentioned are running cool or warm water over hands, touching and feeling different objects, digging heels into the floor, carrying a grounding object, jumping, stretching, and tensing and releasing different muscle groups.

    Hope 24/7 Handout

    What is Grounding?

    • A set of distraction techniques to decrease extreme emotional pain and increase connection
    to the outside world.
    • It includes naming and listing things in the present by using as many of the five senses as
    possible.

    Changing Focus, How do you start?

    • Grounding can be done any time, any place, anywhere and no one has to know you are
    doing it.
    • Use it when you are faced with a trigger, enraged, dissociating or whenever your emotional
    pain goes above 6 (on a 0 to 10 scale, 10 being the worst).
    • Rate your level of emotional pain before and after completing a technique from a scale of 0
    to 10.
    • Take a deep breath in from the nose and breathe slowly out from the mouth.
    • Keep your eyes open and the lights on while scanning the room.
    • Do not talk about negative feelings or do journal writing while grounding
    • It is important to stay neutral. Avoid judgments of “good” and “bad”. When the thought
    comes to your mind, acknowledge it then move on. For example say – “The shirt is yellow”
    not “I look bad in a yellow shirt”.
    • Focus on the present, not the past or future.

    Examples of Grounding

    1) Mental Grounding

    • Play a “categories” game with yourself.


    - List “types of dogs”, “celebrities”, “foods”, “zoo animals”, or compare and contrast
    • Describe an everyday activity in great detail.
    - For example, describe a meal that you cook (e.g., “First I peel the potatoes and cut
    them into quarters”)
    • Imagine
    - Picture in your mind you are changing the TV channel to get to a better show or that
    you are putting your pain in a safe with a lock and key.
    • Say a safety statement.
    - “My name is ______; I am safe right now. I am in the present, not in the past.”
    • Read out loud.
    - Say each word to yourself or read each letter backward so that you focus on the letters
    and not on the meaning of the words.
    • Use humor.
    - Think of something funny
    • Count to 10 or say the alphabet, very s…l…o…w…l…y.
    • Do an age progression.
    - If you have regressed to a younger age (e.g., 10 years old), you can slowly work your
    way back up until you are back to your current age.

    !1
    Hope 24/7 Handout

    2) Physical Grounding

    • Run cool or warm water over your hands or splash water on your face.
    - Pay attention to the sensations
    • Touch or grab tightly various objects around you.
    - Such as a pen, keys, your clothing, the wall. Pay attention to the texture, colour,
    weight, temperature, and compare it with other objects nearby.
    • Dig your heels into the floor-literally “grounding” them.
    - Notice the tension in your heels and remind yourself that you are connected to the
    ground.
    • Carry a grounding object in your pocket.
    - It can be a small object such as a rock, piece of jewelry, a toy, or a strong scent which
    you can touch or smell whenever you feel triggered.
    • Jump up and down.
    - Notice how you can move your body.
    • Stretch.
    - Roll your head from side to side, extend your fingers up to the sky then down to your
    toes.
    • Tense and release different parts of your body.
    - Focus on one muscle group at a time, for example your right hand. Take a slow breath
    and squeeze the muscle as hard as you can for about 5 seconds. Feel the tension then
    release the tension as you exhale. Pay attention to the tension disappearing as you
    relax the muscle.
    • Walk slowly
    - Notice each footstep, saying “left foot” and “right foot” as you walk
    • Eat something slowly, describing the flavours in detail to yourself
    - Is it sweet, sour, bitter?
    • Focus on your breathing
    - Notice each inhale and exhale. Repeat a safe word to yourself as you breath in or out

    3) Soothing Grounding
    • Say kind statements to yourself.
    - “I am a good person going through a hard time. I WILL get through this.”
    • Think & say your favourite things.
    - It can be your favourite colour, animal, season, food, time of day, activity etc
    • Picture people or animals you care about (e.g., your children, family members, celebrity
    crushes).
    - Look at a photograph and think of what you like
    • Remember the words to an inspiring song, quote, or poem.
    • Remember a safe place.
    - Focus on the colours, smells, textures, and sounds of a soothing place.
    • Say a coping statement.
    - “This feeling will pass.” “I can handle this.” “I am safe.”
    • Plan a treat for yourself.
    - It can be a warm bath, a massage, a tasty dessert, a special walk, going for a coffee
    • Think of things you are looking forward to in the next week.
    - For example, spending time with someone you care about, watching a television show,
    going grocery shopping, etc.

    !2
    Hope 24/7 Handout

    Other Grounding Activities

    “54321”

    • Name 5 things you can see in the room with you


    • Name 4 thing you can feel
    • Name 3 things you can hear right now
    • Name 2 things you can smell right now or 2 things you like the smell of
    • Name 1 good thing about yourself

    “Five Senses”

    Trace your hand on a piece of paper and label each finger as one of the five senses (touch, taste,
    smell, hearing, sight). Take each finger and identify something special and safe representing each
    of those five senses.

    For example:
    - Touch: a furry cat
    - Taste: honey
    - Smell: lavender
    - Hearing: waves
    - Sight: a baby laughing

    After writing and drawing this on the paper post it somewhere visible in your home and memorize
    it. When triggered, breathe deeply and slowly and put your hand in front of your face where you
    can really see it. Stare at your hand and concentrate on each finger and repeat each sense with its
    safe association.

    How to make it work!

    • Practice as often as possible, even when you don’t need it


    • Create your own plan to use grounding techniques as your new coping
    strategy.
    • Start doing grounding exercises early in the distress cycle
    • Try it for at least 20 minutes
    • Rate your emotional pain before and after completing a technique so you
    can tell which strategies work best
    • Notice which methods you like the best then have a list somewhere handy to
    remind yourself to use them
    • Use auto tape of grounding messages, index cards, and/or a significant
    object (i.e. stone, photograph, fragrance, piece of jewelry, etc.)
    • Remind yourself why you are doing it

    !3
    Hope 24/7 Handout

    Create Your Own Plan

    Example:*

    When I feel _____anxious_____ (name the emotion),


    I am sensing _____tingling in my chest_____ (describe the body sensation)
    because I am remembering _____the sexual assault_____ (name the trauma by title only, no details).
    Here _____I am in the laundry room at home_____ (name the place where you are)
    and I will _____count to 10 slowly then pay attention to the cool sensation of the water dripping
    from my hands_____ (select your grounding techniques you will do)
    so I know _____the sexual assault_____ (name the trauma)
    is not happening now/any more.

    When I feel __________________________________________ (name the emotion),

    I am sensing _________________________________________ (describe the body sensation)

    because I am remembering ______________________________ (name the trauma by title only, no

    details).

    Here ________________________________________________ (name the place where you are) and

    I will _____________________________________________ (select grounding techniques you will do)

    so I know _____________________________________________ (name the trauma)

    is not happening now/any more.

    Additional Resources

    Najavits, L.M. (2002). Seeking Safety: A Treatment Manual for PTSD and Substance Abuse.

    Prince Edward Island Rape & Sexual Assault Centre. (2008). Grounding Techniques. Retrieved April
    30, 2014 from www.peirsac.org/peirsacul/er/educational_resources10/pdf

    Rothchild, B. (2000). The body remembers: The psychophysiology of trauma and treatment. New
    Year: W.W. Norton.
    !4

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