Mental Health Matters Here Anxiety

Strategy 3. Grounding

During an anxious period of time, you can start to feel very disconnected from everyone else. Thoughts can start racing at a mile a minute. Sometimes it can feel like you are stuck in slow motion, or that everything is on fast-forward. Everything seems to get much louder and out of focus. Anxiety has a way of isolating you, trapping you in your own mind and making you feel like there’s no way out.

This five-step exercise can be very helpful during periods of anxiety or panic by helping to ground you in the present when your mind is bouncing around between various anxious thoughts.

Before starting this exercise, pay attention to your breathing. Slow, deep, long breaths can help you maintain a sense of calm or help you return to a calmer state. Once you find your breath, go through the following steps to help ground yourself:

5: Acknowledge FIVE things you see around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, or anything in your surroundings.

4: Acknowledge FOUR things you can touch around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet.

3: Acknowledge THREE things you hear. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that counts! Focus on things you can hear outside of your body.

2: Acknowledge TWO things you can smell. Maybe you are in your office and smell a pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell a pillow. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside.

1: Acknowledge ONE thing you can taste. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch?

Watch this video and try this out:

Accessibility Transcript

Introduction

Signs and symptoms of anxiety

How do you know if you are anxious?

Strategies for dealing with anxiety

Strategy 1. Dealing with negative thoughts

Strategy 2. Dealing with worry

Strategy 3. Grounding

Strategy 4. Breathing exercises