Grounding techniques are relaxing and pleasurable activities that decrease stress and anxiety. When anxious, you are out of touch with the present moment, as anxious thoughts are typically past and future-focused. These techniques help you reconnect to the present and feel calmer and safer in the here and now.

Most of the techniques presented below focus on aspects of your five senses: touch, taste, sight, sound, and smell. Senses are rooted in the present; by heightening your awareness of your surroundings and body, you can heighten your awareness of the moment you live within.

Physical and Sensory Techniques

  • Foot Grounding: Press your feet firmly to the ground to remind yourself where you are.
  • Tactile Objects: Carry a polished stone or a soft piece of cloth with you to touch.
  • Visual Aids: Carry a soothing picture with you and look at it when you feel anxious.
  • Mindful Eating: Eat or drink a favorite food. Enjoy it slowly. Do nothing else while consuming it except focus on enjoying and savoring it.
  • Observational Grounding: Notice where you are, including the people, sites, and sounds, as if you were watching a TV show.
  • Movement: Exercise or stretch. Massage your muscles to relax them and reduce tension.
  • Controlled Breathing: Concentrate on your breathing. Take a deep, cleansing breath in through your nose and count. Exhale slowly through your mouth for twice as long. Continue for five minutes.
  • Body Control: Slowly and deliberately cross your legs and arms. Feel the sensations of you controlling your body.
  • Social Connection: Call a friend and talk to them about something you have recently done.

Nature and Environmental Techniques

  • Outdoor Immersion: Go outside. Notice the air on your skin. How does it make your body feel?
  • Tree Grounding: Sit against a tree. Feel the bark pressing against your back.
  • Natural Aromas: Smell the outside aromas like the grass and leaves. Run your fingers through the grass.
  • Sky Watching: Go outside and watch the clouds or go for a walk.
  • Nature Sounds: Go to a park or an arboretum and listen to the sounds of nature.

Comfort and Distraction Techniques

  • Comfort Objects: Hold something you find comforting, like a stuffed animal or a blanket. Notice how it feels in your hands.
  • Productivity: Get active. Do the dishes, clean your room, or redecorate. Organize your dresser or closet.
  • Animal Interaction: Pet or play with an animal. If you don’t have one, visit a friend, a pet store, or a shelter.
  • Music: Listen to familiar, comforting music and sing along or dance to it.
  • Journaling: Write in your journal. Pay attention to yourself holding the pencil. Write about what you remember and visualize the memory traveling out of you into the pencil and onto the paper. Tear the paper up afterward.
  • Entertainment: Watch a favorite fun TV program, DVD, or your favorite website. Play a video game.
  • Creativity: Color in a coloring book or doodle on a notepad. Focus on the feeling of your writing utensil moving across the paper.
  • Aesthetics: Look up pictures or paintings online that you find beautiful. Save them as your background image or hang them in your room.
  • Audiobooks: Check out an audiobook from the library and listen to it.
  • New Experiences: Go somewhere you’ve never been before (a restaurant, museum, etc.).
  • Soothing Sounds: Play white noise (such as from simplynoise.com) or running water. Set up a mini water fountain or run a fan to provide soothing background noise.