Ease Your Anxiety With These 4 Grounding Techniques
Try these and see how you feel afterward.
In the wake of the pandemic, everyone has started to feel some uncertainty. We’re in some weird times and it may leave you feeling unsure, anxious, stressed, and depressed.
There’s no getting around we’re in difficult times, and when all else fails, we need something to be able to help calm and ground ourselves. Here are a couple of different things you can try to help.
The 5–4–3–2–1
This is by far one of my favorite techniques. It’s my go-to whenever I’m struggling with dissociation because it’s really good at grounding. Here’s how it works:
You’re going to identify
- 5 things you can see
- 4 things you can feel
- 3 things you can hear
- 2 things you can smell
- 1 Thing you can taste
This can be modified as the 3–3–3 technique. In the 3–3–3 technique, you will:
Identify 3 things you can see,
3 things you can hear,
and move 3 body parts.
The next technique focuses on your breathing.
Box Breathing
Box breathing is simple and effective to do. You’re going to count even breaths.
Breathe in for 4 seconds. Hold it for 4 seconds. Breathe out for 4 seconds. Hold for 4 seconds. Repeat until you feel calmer.
This has also been adapted as 4–7–8 breathing. In this variation, you:
breathe in for 4 seconds,
hold for 7 seconds,
and release your breath for 8 seconds.
Between the two, you can adapt it however you please to make it work for you. The goal is to reduce anxiety, not increase it. Don’t stress too much and when you’re under pressure just take a deep breath and breathe.
There are several solid methods to get through it. Try the 5–4–3–2–1- or box breathing. You’ve got this.
If you’d like to experience the full Medium experience, consider signing up for a membership. Membership will grant you access to all my articles and thousands of other writers on this platform. By signing up with this link, you’ll directly be supporting me. I will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
[embed]https://medium.com/@ohsnapitsmags/membership[/embed]
