Great to be grounded

Our guided grounding tool can help you deal with stressful situations and get back in charge of your thoughts.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed or disconnected from the world, this tool will help you focus on your surroundings and the present moment.

The first thing it will ask you to do is to take some long slow breaths before moving on to specifically describing three things you can see, hear and then touch.

Once you’re familiar with this grounding technique, you can use it whenever it’s needed to divert your attention away from your current thoughts and on to other things.

Or if you’re short on time, you can also try any of the following quick grounding exercises:

• Focus all of your attention on the feel of a pebble, coin or any small object in your hand – try to notice something new about the object you might not have seen or felt before.
• While eating, focus all your attention on the sensations of the food in your mouth as you chew very slowly.
• Hold an ice cube in your hand – focus all your attention on the sensations you feel when gripping it – the cold, the wet, the tingling and numbness.
• Pay attention to sensations you are not usually aware of – like the feeling of your clothes touching your skin, or the watch on your wrist.
• Pay attention to all the background sounds in your environment - try to identify as many as you can.
• Walk slowly, focusing your attention on what it feels like to take each step.
• Focus all your attention on your feet, press them into the floor and feel the sensation of your footwear, and the surface under your feet.
• Pay attention to all the smells in your environment - try to identify as many as you can.
• Stamp your feet or clap your hands – focus on the sensation, notice the force of your effort and the sounds that are created.
• Pay close attention to the physical sensation of your breath entering and leaving your body, in your chest, in your airway, in your nose or mouth.
• Place the underside of the tip of your tongue against the back of your front teeth, push your tongue forward and notice the sensation in your mouth and jaw.
• Tune into the voices of the people around you, or those on the radio or in music, only paying attention to the sounds that their voices make.
• Rub your hands together, paying close attention to the sensations of the skin on skin contact.

For more information about guided grounding and other tools you can use for enhancing stress management skills and improving resilience, see our Self-help tools or download the High Res App.