Five Effective Ways to Ground Yourself
There are many benefits to being able to bring a sense of grounding into your day-to-day life! You don’t have to be someone who has high levels of anxiety (although the strategies below can be helpful), grounding can also make you feel more present, grateful, and connected.
Emotional eaters use food as a way to escape their body, to avoid experiencing certain feelings, either as distraction or numbing. Learning how to ground yourself can help lessen the intensity of these emotions that lead you to use food to cope and even help you emotionally eat less frequently. Try one or all of the strategies below and see what works for you!
Deep breathing. This can be as simple as taking slower, deeper breaths at your own pace or finding a patterned technique that works for you. This is such a great strategy that you can use in a meeting at work, around the dinner table, or just before bed.
Be in nature. Take off your shoes and feel the earth beneath your feet, turn your face to the warm rays of the sun, or look closely at the patterns in a snowflake. Becoming aware of the details and sensory experience of nature has a very calming effect!
Play with hot and cold. Some find warm showers a comforting way to return to their body and others find splashing cold water on their face (or holding an ice cube) a gentle tug towards the present. Try either and see what supports you.
Move your body. When your mind starts spiraling, often your body will follow with tight muscles or shaking. Movement is a powerful outlet for these experiences! Try a gentle walk, something that will make you sweat, or simply push against a wall.
Engage your ears. It can sometimes be helpful to turn down the volume on your thoughts by turning up the volume on other sounds! A meditation app, your own curated playlist, or the sound of ocean waves are all options that can give you something calming to focus on.
Keep in mind that you may need different strategies for different experiences—that’s normal! Knowing you have a number of ways to show yourself some support can itself be helpful in diffusing a situation because you know you have options.
💛 Your peace awaits.
