This YouTube video, presented by Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes, defines grounding and provides six practical grounding techniques to manage anxiety, dissociation, flashbacks, rumination, and obsessive thoughts. The techniques demonstrated are: the 5-4-3-2-1 sensory method (and category variants), narration (self-narration and problem-stating with step lists), deep/"balloon" breathing (four-count inhale/hold/exhale/hold with bodily sensations), open awareness (detailed sensory description from multiple perspectives), a self-awareness scan using the PITCHES mnemonic (Pain, Illness, Tension, Cold/Hot, Hunger, Emotions, Safety), and a closing synthesis explaining how grounding restores present-moment control and access to the "wise mind".
Chapters
Hey there, everybody, and welcome to this video on six simple grounding techniques. I'm your host, Dr. Donnellice Snipes. Let's start out by defining what is grounding. Grounding is the act of refocusing your attention and the thoughts to the present moment to help you turn off your autopilot, get into your wise mind and take control of your thoughts. It helps you recognize where you are, when you are, and what you are in control of. Grounding is really good for helping people when they start to feel threatened. When people feel threatened, it can trigger feelings of anger or anxiety, your threat response, which results in a lot of things. But the ones we're talking about with grounding are racing thoughts, ruminations, or thoughts you can't get out of your head, flashbacks and dissociation. And grounding is really good for all four of these things. The first technique, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. When you start to feel anxious or angry, or even if you just want to be more mindful, periodically stop. Identify five things that you see, four things that you hear, three things that you smell, two things that you feel like the cool breeze and the feeling of the clothing against your arm, whatever it is, and one thing that you taste. Now, taste can get a little dicey sometimes. You may not taste anything, but definitely 5432. You can also do another version of this by just identifying five green things that you see or five brown things that you see. So you're not having to do 5432. You're just finding five things that are of a certain category. Narration is the next tool when you're feeling anxious. A lot of times you can get into emotion focused reasoning. I feel scared. Therefore there must be a threat. And you can get caught up in your mind swimming about what is going to happen next, what's wrong, where's the threat? And it can get really noisy. So grounding can help you get refocused by narrating. You tell yourself, you say, I'm safe. You say where you are, I'm safe, I'm in my office. And then you narrate what you're doing. I'm getting ready to go to a meeting, I'm looking for my keys, I'm walking out the door. So as you're doing things, you're narrating exactly what you're doing. To stay focused on the present moment or another twist on narration is to state the problem. If you, if your anxiety or your anger gets triggered, state the problem, identify what needs to be done, and then List the steps to make it happen. So, for example, if you're driving down the road and you get a flat tire, oh my gosh, what do you do? Well, state the problem. Okay, I got a flat tire, I need to get my, my emergency tire put on. First thing I need to do is pull over on the side of the road. Next thing I need to do is call aaa, whatever it is that you do to get the tire back on your car. For people like me who are very structure oriented and we love routine, something like a flat tire can throw us for a complete tailspin. Because it's like, this was not planned, I don't know what to do, but in reality we do. So if you just step back and you state the problem, identify the goal, and then start listing the steps as if you are explaining to a child what needs to be done, then you're going to help yourself get focused into your logical mind. The next one is deep, or what I sometimes call balloon breathing. When you do this, and sometimes we call it four square breathing, you breathe in for four, hold for four, exhale for four, hold for four. Okay, that's fine. But that is not super grounding. That will help trigger your vagus nerve and your relaxation response. But grounding really means turning your attention to the present moment. So with balloon breathing, as you breathe in, you're counting to four and you're also noticing how the air feels coming in through your nose. Is it cold? Is it hot? Does it stink? Do you smell something good? And then you're going to notice your stomach expanding followed by your chest. When we inhale, it's like blowing a balloon. The farthest aspect expands first and then the more air you put into it, the more the balloon fills up. So you'll notice when you inhale, your belly expands first and then your chest. Hold for four and then exhale for four. And as you exhale, notice how the air feels leaving through your mouth. So you inhale through your nose, exhale through your mouth. It'll probably be a lot warmer this time because it's been in your body for a while. And then feel your chest shrinking followed by your stomach, just like a balloon does. When you let go of a balloon, the top part gets smaller before the bottom part. So the most recent air that was taken in is the first air out. So think of your core like one of those big long balloons. And when you inhale, feel it expand. And as you exhale, feel it contract. Open awareness is the next technique. Open awareness means not focusing on any one Thing in particular, it means being aware of the moment. So say where you are, for example, I'm in my office. And then describe what you see as if you're talking to someone who's not there, maybe you're talking to somebody on the phone. Describe to them what you smell, what you feel and what you hear. So if you're at the park, you're going to describe what you're smelling and what you're feeling. The sun beating down on you, the air blowing across your skin and what you're hearing, hopefully birds chirping and children playing and maybe an airplane going overhead, whatever it is you're hearing. And then look to your right and describe what you see as completely as possible. So if they wanted to, they could paint it. Once you're finished, then look forward and describe what you see. And once you're finished there, look to the left and describe what you see. Now, you may not have enough time to do all three perspectives, but it can be helpful to just stop and describe everything you're not doing. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You are just noticing anything that comes into your awareness in that period of time and self awareness. And the mnemonic for this is pitches. You know, I love my mnemonics. Become mindful of yourself. Turn your attention to your body and and your this envelope that is you. And start becoming mindful of yourself in the moment. P stands for pain. Do you have any? If so, what can you do about it? I stands for illness. If you're starting to feel sick, if you're starting your allergies are acting up or something, what can you do about it? T is for tension. Scan from head to toe. Do you have muscle tension somewhere that you're experiencing that you need to either massage out or stretch or move around? C stands for cold or hot. Are you uncomfortable when you're not the right temperature? It causes stress, it adds anxiety. H is for hunger. If your blood sugar's low, you're more likely to feel shaky and jittery and maybe mislabel that as anxiety and you can become hangry and become more irritable with people if your blood sugar is low. E stands for emotions. What are you feeling right now? Are you happy? Are you sad? Are you curious? Are you flat? What are you feeling? And if it's not what you want to be feeling, how can you improve the next moment? And finally, S is for safety. Be mindful of Are you safe in the moment? In this context, at this time, are you safe? When you go through those things, it turns your attention to yourself and empowers you to take control of those things over which you can control. Grounding exercises are essential tools to help people deal with anxiety, dissociation, flashbacks, ruminations, and obsessive thoughts. Grounding can help you feel less out of control so you can recognize your power in the present moment instead of having this litany of what ifs going on. Turning your attention to the moment what is going on with me right now? What do I need to attend to right now? When you do that, it helps get into your wise mind. It helps you turn down that stress response, turn down the adrenaline, get out of the adrenaline haze, whatever you want to say. Get into your wise mind and figure out how to address the issue and improve the next moment.
