After a trauma, it’s normal to experience flashbacks, anxiety, and other uncomfortable symptoms. Grounding techniques help control these symptoms by turning attention away from thoughts, memories, or worries, and refocusing on the present moment. Here are a few techniques for grounding that you can use :
Mental Exercises
Use mental exercises to take your mind off uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. They are discreet and easy to use at nearly any time or place. Experiment to see which work best for you.
- Name all the objects you see.
- Describe the steps in performing an activity you know how to do well. For example, how to shoot a basketball, prepare your favourite meal, or tie a knot.
- Count backwards from 100 to 7.
- Pick up an object and describe it in detail. Describe its colour, texture, size, weight, scent, and any other qualities you notice.
- Spell your full name, and the names of three other people, backwards.
- Name all your family members, their ages, and one of their favourite activities.
- Read something backwards, letter by letter. Practice for at least a few minutes.
- Think of an object and “draw” it in your mind, or in the air with your finger. Try drawing your home, a vehicle, or an animal.
References : https://i.pinimg.com/736x/3f/17/02/3f170287656ec9a270d6d8258543a020.jpg
Thank you for this, I like the mental drawing exercise and reading in reverse, I will practice these
Last year I learnt how to juggle and it increased my mental and physical flexibility.
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Writing, drawing, painting, embroidery, and even coloring can be a powerful means to mental health. Creating art (professional or otherwise) allows us to disconnect from stress, express inner thoughts, and even meditate. In recent years, scientists have studied the positive effects art therapy can have on our health. Let me know if you liked drawing and it worked for you.
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I leaned how how to skip and pick up woodlice. Both helped me in different ways. Not mastered juggling yet. One for the unknowable future. 😉
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Wow
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That’s what I thought. I was terrified of them beforehand. The thought of them touching my fingers freaked me out. But now, like I said, I can use skipping ropes like a pro. 🙂
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You are an inspiration. Thank you
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Haha – I’ve been called lots of things, but hardly ever an inspiration. More like an expiration. 😀
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Haha
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🙂
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Nice topic. Can you give me a link to part one first please? 😉
Cheers.
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Sure Robert. Here :
https://empress2inspire.blog/2020/11/19/grounding-techniques-part-1/
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I use the tree meditation for grounding, imagining I am a tree, that the roots go through the soles of my feet. And connect with the earth and take up nutrients.
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That is beautiful. Thank you for sharing that with us.
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You are welcome took me several months to get to grips with meditation. I either could not settle, fell asleep, or could not calm my thoughts. Now they can help me relax to sleep.
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Well they say Meditation is The Ultimate Form Of Developing Patience. Meditation is a godsend and throughout my life has helped me to develop myself in ways I never imagined. Overall, I’ve been a pretty patient person, finding entertainment in the most basic of things. It’s probably why I find mediation so helpful and entertaining as well.
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I also like to listen to guided visualisation and lucid dream to my cosy safe dream place.
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Have you tried asmr?
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Asmr?
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Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR), sometimes auto sensory meridian response, is a tingling sensation that typically begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson. Check for asmr videos on YouTube
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I sometimes get tingling since becoming reiki qualified though not just in my scalp or starting in scalp. It can start anywhere.
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Yes it’s grain tingles. You can try out some videos online to check it out
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Okay, I tried to read this – I really did, but I kept getting distracted by the picture of the young woman in the cowboy hat who, judging by the expression on her face, is trying out her new kegel balls.
Yeah, I know – this comment’ll never get past the censors. 😉
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Okay if that’s what you want to concentrate on so be it but just concentrate
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Ha, nice one. 🙂
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👍👌
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Grounding is a simple, inexpensive means by which most of us can combat these destructive forces. The negative electrons absorbed from the earth quenches the free radicals, supports the immune system, and puts out the fires. Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman described an umbrella affect created when we “earth.” He claimed that grounding equalized the electronic potential between the body and the earth, so the body becomes an extension of the earth’s magnetic field. This potential “cancels, reduces, and pushes away electrical fields from the body.”
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I seriously love this post! How helpful and also true! 💗
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Grounding Improves Inflammation and Immunity
New studies also show that grounding positively affects the inflammatory response and the immune system, which could have far-reaching health benefits. We already know that grounding improves cortisol levels. Since a high cortisol, associated with chronic stress, leads to systemic inflammation in the body, grounding can certainly improve inflammation as it normalizes cortisol.
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I love this post thank you! It’s so helpful! 👍🏽
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Grounding appears to improve sleep, help manage pain, and normalizes cortisol (a stress hormone) to reduce the stress response.
The nervous system is an electrical system of the body and influences all these activities. An influx of negative electrons from the earth has been shown to calm the nervous system by shifting the autonomic nervous system from the sympathetic, “fight-or-flight” branch toward the parasympathetic “rest-and-digest” branch.
Sleep and stress reduction are vital for managing pain, and decreasing the risks of many chronic health conditions. In a blind pilot study of 60 subject suffering from sleep disturbances and chronic muscle and joint pain for at least six months, grounding each night for one month produced a 74 to 100 percent improvement in quality of sleep, feeling rested upon waking, muscle stiffness and pain, chronic back and joint pain, and general well-being. Grounding helps to establish a normal cortisol level at night, which improves sleep, pain, and stress.
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