Strategies for Grounding During times of Distress

Suffering and distress are a natural part of the human condition. There will come times in all of our lives we were feel are limits are tested or when we become overwhelmed. Often these feelings can be exacerbated by the perception that “I should be handling this better,” or “this does not happen to anyone else.” These thoughts are referred to as cognitive distortions and give us a skewed perspective on how we cope with everyday struggles. Since overwhelm and difficult situations are natural to the human experience we will be taking a look at 2 grounding strategies for lowering reactivity and bringing ourselves back to the present moment.

1. Boxed (Squared) Breathing: Boxed breathing is a technique that works to bring awareness to the bodily sensation of breathing while also increasing the amount of oxygen we are intaking. Some find it helpful to draw a square with arrows running along its edges in a clockwise direction. This can be a beneficial strategy by providing a visual aid to follow in tandem with ones breathing. In order to begin the practice start at the left hand corner of the box, follow the vertical arrow to the top left corner of the box, while doing this slowly inhale for 4 seconds until you reach the top. Once at the top hold your breath for another 4 seconds as you follow the horizontal arrow to the top right corner. Upon reaching the top right corner you will begin to exhale slowly for 4 seconds as you follow the vertical arrow to the bottom right corner. Once again hold your breath as you follow the horizontal arrow to the bottom left corner and begin the process once again. Boxed breathing is an excellent strategy in that it can be used almost anywhere and that you can repeat the process for as long as you need until feeling like you have reached a grounded state.

2. 5 4 3 2 1 Senses Grounding Technique: A wonderful reminder if that often we hold the  tools to ground within our built in human experience. Our 5 senses serve as connection to the outside world and aid us in making sense of our experience and feelings. When becoming overwhelmed this can often be in response to being so consumed by anxiety or distress we find ourselves stuck in our internal process. The 5 senses can help us bring our awareness and attention to the now. To begin start by looking around whatever space or area you are in, either make a mental note or outwardly verbalize 5 things that you can see around the room. After this choose 4 things to touch without moving, bring your awareness to the sensation of the item being handled, identify what is different between the 4 items you have to decided to feel in this moment. Once completed close your eyes and identify 3 different things you can hear. These things can range from any noise you yourself are producing or a noise outside of oneself. After that choose 2 things that you can smell, sometimes people really enjoy using essential oils for this step, though it is usually more pleasant to smell something enjoyable if something undesirable is only available that works as well. The focus being that the experience is not pleasurable but instead effective and redirecting our attention. Lastly choose one thing to taste, make sure that this is a safe item to taste and I would recommend utilizing a beverage or small candy while bringing your focus to the sensation of the flavor.

Hopefully these two strategies will prove useful to those who try them out during times of distress. It can be helpful to practice these tools while one is not actively reactive or in a crisis state. The reasoning for that is that it can be very difficult to think critically during times of distress and it can be hard to remember tools available to you. Similarly to how a football team would not utilize a new play they haven’t practiced in the Super Bowl, you owe it to yourself to practice these tools before using them in real time.

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