While it is important to understand and feel our emotions, not every occasion is appropriate or useful for doing so. You can use these simple grounding techniques to help you detach from emotional pain that isn’t effective for you to feel in the moment. Grounding techniques work by shifting your attention and focus to something other than the difficult emotions or thoughts you are experiencing. 

Color Breathing

Mentally picture a color that represents how you want to feel (i.e. Blue for relaxation, orange for joy, green for healing) and a color that represents what you want to let go of in life (red, for instance). 

Get in a comfortable position and allow yourself to relax. Now breathe in the color of your choice for 2-3 seconds, imagining yourself bathed in the color. Now breathe out the color that represents what you want to let go of for 4-6 seconds, imagining it fully leaving your body. Note that your exhale should be twice as long as your inhale for best results. 

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique 

Use all 5 senses to help you refocus and bring you back to the present moment

First, look around you and name in your head 5 things you can see (you can look within the room and out of the window)

Then touch 4 things you can feel (the silkiness of your skin, the material on your chair, the texture of your hair) 

Then listen for 3 things you can hear (traffic noise, birds outside...you would be surprised how many things you hear that you normally tune out when you’re mindfully listening!)

Then notice 2 things you can smell (hopefully nothing awful!)

And finally, 1 thing you can taste (the taste of your mouth, a sip of a drink)

Positive Self-Talk 

The way we talk to ourselves matters and affects our emotions. Notice how your mood shifts when you replace catastrophizing statements with more realistic and positive self-talk. Sometimes it can be useful to consider how you might speak to a friend or a child. It may help you realize how harsh you’re being to yourself. 

“There will be difficult moments as I take the test, I expect them and can handle them now” vs. “I am definitely going to fail”

“I feel good about myself and most of my abilities” vs. “I am a failure because I am struggling with one task”

“I may have done poorly on this test before, but now I have the skills to pass this test” vs. “I failed once and will likely fail again”

Remember: Although grounding techniques won’t solve the original problem causing your distressing emotions, they provide a temporary way to gain control over your feelings and prevent yourself from making things worse.

If you’d like to seek out more grounding techniques at Therapist of New York, contact us here.