For those who have experienced trauma, it can be hard to predict what might trigger an emotional reaction. Smells, sounds, anniversaries of traumatic events – almost anything has the potential to bring back a painful memory, leaving you overwhelmed with emotion and anxiety. When triggered, you may experience what many people describe as the fight-or-flight response: shallow or rapid breathing, racing heart, and the feeling that your thoughts are spinning out of your control.
The good news is you can take back control of your emotions and your body with grounding exercises that help you achieve nervous system regulation. In this blog, we’ll discuss what grounding exercises are, how they work, and provide specific exercises you can practice that will help you begin to heal a dysregulated nervous system.
Trauma and Nervous System Regulation
When you experience a traumatic event, your brain immediately goes into survival mode, bypassing your pre-frontal cortex and creating dysregulation of your nervous system.
Symptoms of a dysregulated nervous system include:
- Rapid heart rate
- Shallow, rapid breathing
- Shortness of breath
- Mood swings
- Feeling overwhelmed
- Feeling frozen
- Dizziness
- Nausea
Trauma triggers, including anxiety triggers, can cause the same symptoms, making you feel as if you’ve lost control of your body and your emotions. Grounding exercises are nervous system regulation techniques that reconnect your mind and body to the present moment and reduce dysregulated nervous system symptoms.
What Are Grounding Exercises?
Grounding exercises help you separate yourself from emotional pain. These exercises teach you how to regulate your nervous system by taking your focus off of your emotions through anchoring your body and mind in the present moment. Grounding exercises empower you to take control of your emotions and regulate your nervous system.
How Does Grounding Work?
Grounding exercises work by providing another focus besides uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Learning how to regulate your nervous system enables you to detach yourself from negative emotions and reduce the intensity of those feelings by grounding yourself in the here and now. Grounding exercises use all five senses to activate your body’s relaxation response which is the opposite of the stress response. During the relaxation response, your body slows down your heart rate and your breathing, helping you feel calm and in control.
What Conditions Can Grounding Help?
Grounding exercises have been proven highly effective in treating the symptoms of anxiety, stress, and depression. Initial studies of grounding exercises and other mindfulness-based techniques also show great promise for the treatment of a wide variety of mental and physical health conditions from pain and insomnia to ADHD and bipolar disorder.
Can I Do Grounding Exercises on My Own?
While some people learn more advanced grounding techniques from a therapist or counselor, you don’t need an instructor to do the exercises discussed here. These grounding techniques are very simple activities that you can teach yourself. What’s more, you can do grounding exercises anywhere at any time.
Is There a Difference Between Grounding and Earthing?
Although it sounds a little bit like “who’s on first,” grounding is also the name of a grounding technique. Grounding, also called “earthing,” is a strategy for calming yourself by having direct contact with the Earth. You can walk barefoot in the grass, sit or lie in the dirt or sand, swim in a naturally occurring body of water, or just sit in a chair and let your bare feet rest on the ground. Grounding offers the same benefits as many other grounding techniques. Some people believe that grounding also connects your body to the Earth’s electrical energy and helps you absorb that energy in a way that positively impacts your health.
What Does the Science Say?
It’s not just wishful thinking or a placebo effect. Recent studies have shown that grounding strategies and other mindfulness-based techniques are effective treatment for many mental health conditions. They’re particularly helpful in reducing stress, anxiety, and depression. Research also shows that grounding exercises have positive psychological effects such as reduction in symptoms and improved nervous system regulation. Scientists believe that grounding exercises have great potential for helping other conditions including substance use disorders, ADHD, and bipolar disorder.
How to Heal a Dysregulated Nervous System
Getting started with grounding exercises for nervous system regulation is easy. There are several different types of grounding exercises including physical, mental, sensory, and soothing techniques. Some of these categories actually overlap, as with the 5-4-3-2-1 Technique. Most of the time, nobody will even notice that you’re doing them, so you can do these exercises wherever and whenever you need them. Like with most therapies, different techniques work for different people. You can try all of the exercises described below to find the ones that help you the most. And, you don’t have to wait for a triggering event to do these exercises. In fact, practicing these techniques before you need them makes it easier to call on them when you’re in the middle of a triggering episode. You may even find benefit and comfort in making these a part of your daily routine.
4 Easy Sensory Techniques to Try
Sensory grounding techniques leverage your body’s sensory input to connect your mental and physical states to the present moment.
- 5-4-3-2-1 Technique
When doing this exercise, you’ll use all five senses to purposefully perceive the world around you, noticing small details that you typically overlook. Either aloud or in your head, name:
- Five things you can see
- Four things you can touch
- Three things you can hear
- Two things you can smell
- One thing you can taste
Repeat this cycle until you feel your emotions are under control.
- Cool Therapy
Coming into contact with something cool is an effective way to interrupt an emotional spiral. You might take a few sips of cold water, noticing how it feels in your mouth and as you swallow. You could also hold your hands in cool running water from the faucet or hold a cool, wet cloth to your face, noticing how the cold feels on your skin.
- Butterfly Tapping
Rhythmic tapping can help calm a dysregulated nervous system. For this exercise, cross your arms in front of your body and alternate your right and left hand or fingers to gently tap on your arms in a rhythmic pattern. As you tap, breathe deeply and focus your attention on the tapping, pushing away intrusive thoughts.
- Body Scanning
Despite what its name suggests, body scanning doesn’t involve any kind of advanced technology. Body scanning, also known as a mindfulness body scan, is an exercise that asks you to slow down and pay very close attention to your body. First, take a few deep breaths to center yourself. Then, close your eyes and mentally focus on what you’re physically feeling. Start at the top of your body, then let your attention move down your body, noticing any sensations, tension, pressure, or textures you’re feeling. Finish with your feet and take another deep breath before you open your eyes.
Nervous System Regulation at The Guest House
At The Guest House, we strongly encourage our guests to participate in a meditation-based practice like conscious connected breathwork during their stay with us, as we are confident in the benefits of these methods thanks to years of research supporting their use in treating psychological issues. Each session consists of an exploration of the client’s belief system to focus their breathwork exercise, followed by the breathwork itself, which is safely guided by a therapist. We also facilitate the practice of somatic therapy, which is focused on finding and releasing pent-up tension from trauma, referred to as somatic energy. Those who participate in somatic therapy to release these energy reserves may use massage, movement, stretching, exercise or skin treatments to disengage areas of trauma-induced tension.
4 Easy Breathwork Techniques for Beginners
Your breath is one of the most important healing tools you possess. Breathwork involves controlling your breathing to harness the power of your breath to calm and regulate your nervous system. The exercises described below can be done wherever and however you feel comfortable, so you can experience the benefits of breathwork any time you need them. As with any other grounding exercise, it’s important to find the somatic breathwork techniques that feel most comfortable to you.
- Diaphragmatic Breathing
This technique is also called abdominal breathing or belly breathing. Take deep breaths from your diaphragm. Simply focus on your belly as it gently rises when you inhale and falls when you exhale.
- Box Breathing
Box breathing takes its name from the four sides of a box because this technique has four simple steps.
- Breath in for four counts
- Hold your breath in for four counts
- Exhale for four counts
- Hold after you exhale for four counts
The counting that you do during this exercise also creates a calming, meditative state that helps you stay anchored in the present moment.
- Alternate Nostril Breathing
- With your thumb, hold your left nostril closed.
- Breathe in using only your right nostril.
- Hold your breath as you switch sides, releasing your left nostril and using your index finger to hold your right nostril closed as you exhale through your left nostril.
- Take in a deep breath through both nostrils, then begin the sequence again.
- Repeat until you feel calm.
- Cycle Sighing
First, slowly inhale through your nose. Then, take a second, deeper breath through your nose, filling your lungs as much as you can. Next, slowly exhale through your mouth. Repeat this cycle for five minutes.
Somatic Experiencing
Grounding techniques are an important part of somatic experiencing, a treatment method which focuses on how the body processes emotion. Somatic experiencing, also called somatic therapy, is based on the belief that emotional healing can be achieved by first engaging the body. When people feel safe in their bodies, they can process and release damaging thoughts, memories, and emotions.
Ready to Find Real Healing?
At The Guest House in Ocala, Florida, our mission is to provide a recovery experience that is comfortable, customizable and compassionate. By using somatic experiencing, traditional therapies, holistic healing, and other modalities of treatment, our compassionate staff helps guests overcome long-held trauma and other underlying issues that cause addiction and mental health disorders. Choosing to seek treatment is a difficult decision, but your journey back to health can be a time of rest, quietude and healing when you enter the programs at The Guest House Ocala. Call us today at 855-523-2581 to learn more.
For more on this topic, read our September 2022 blog post titled, What is Nervous System Regulation?