Grounding techniques: Powerful ways to find calm in chaos

It’s normal sometimes to feel overwhelmed by anxiety and stress. Maybe your mind is racing, full of so many all-consuming thoughts that you struggle to focus. You might feel like your heart is pounding so fast it could beat out of your chest. 

In other words, you’re ungrounded.

Feeling ungrounded when overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious isn’t uncommon for some people. The good news is there are many helpful grounding exercises to employ. These are intended to help ease the feeling and improve your well-being.

We’re diving into what it means to feel grounded, tips for grounding yourself in the present moment, and how to incorporate these practices into your everyday life.

What are grounding techniques?

Grounding techniques are strategies to calm your mind in moments of heightened worry, anxiety, or stress. They aim to ease the physical signs, like a pounding heart or racing thoughts. Gradually, these techniques can reframe your approach to overwhelming situations. 

When you “ground” yourself, you reconnect with the present moment. The act of realigning with the surrounding environment is also called “earthing.”

Feeling ungrounded can stem from several situations:

• You try to accomplish too many things at once. 
• You’ve overcommitted your time and energy.
• You operate at different levels throughout the day, like shifting from a detail-oriented activity to something more strategic. 
• You get overwhelmed by emotions or thoughts.
• You find yourself in a situation that doesn’t align with your values, goals, or purpose. 
• You have nerves from preparing to give a presentation or speech.
• You’re dealing with a large task list and don’t know how to prioritize it. 

All grounding techniques focus on your mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Here’s what it might look like to implement techniques from each category:

• Physical: Physical grounding techniques aim to achieve calm within your body. You focus on relaxing your muscles, easing tension, and creating a stronger connection with your body to improve overall well-being. 
• Mental: Mental grounding techniques focus on reframing how you think about anxiety, stress, and overwhelm. The idea is to change your approach to stressful situations and avoid overwhelming your nervous system. 
• Emotional: Emotional grounding techniques can include meditation, mindful breathing, and compassionate self-talk. You’re forming an emotional foundation to relieve anxiety, overwhelm, and stress through self-love. 

Use your 5 senses to ground yourself in the present moment

If you notice yourself getting overwhelmed or anxious, pause what you’re doing and focus on your five senses. Doing so pushes your mind to hone in on your current surroundings instead of ruminating on what’s to come. 

You may not always have time to go on a walk, journal, or meditate. Present-moment grounding techniques can act as an in-the-moment meditation when you’re dealing with intense emotions. 

Here’s how to use your five senses to ground yourself in the present moment:

• Sight: Engage in your visual environment. Pick a color and count all the items in your immediate space with that color. You could also take a moment to sit and look out a window at the outside world while taking long, slow breaths.
• Sound: Close your eyes and tune into the audible world. Pick out the different sounds in your space. If you’re in a quiet environment, implement breathing techniques and pay attention to the sound of your breath. If you have a favorite TV show or song that’s relaxing, hit play.
• Touch: Close your eyes and focus on the physical sensations surrounding you. How does your body feel while sitting in your chair? What are the textures of your clothing? If you keep fidget toys on hand, consider playing with them and focusing on how it feels. If you feel overheated, consider holding an ice cube to the inside of your wrist to help cool your body and slow your heart rate.
• Taste: If it’s available to you, grab a snack and eat slowly, paying close attention to the taste of your food. You could try keeping sour candy or a salty treat at your desk. Pick something with an enjoyable flavor that’s easy to focus on. Take small sips of water or tea while you focus on deep breathing. 
• Smell: What do you smell in your surroundings? Is there a candle nearby that has a scent you enjoy? Focus your attention on the scents around you. Just identify them and breathe. 

By using your five senses, you can stop anxious or spiraling thoughts in their tracks. With more clarity on the situation that’s causing the anxiety, you can reframe your mindset or shift your approach to ease its weight.

Your senses are an excellent resource for grounding yourself in the moment. It’s also important to have grounding habits that are part of your daily life and can help calm your mind. 

6 everyday practices to help ground yourself

1. Add in mindful breath work

Mindful breathing exercises work wonders in a moment of overwhelm. Regular practice of focused breathwork, whether accompanied by meditation or yoga, can create a solid baseline for staying grounded. This baseline is what you’ll fall back on when dealing with anxious thoughts or stressful situations. 

Here’s a tip: Box breathing is a simple yet effective breathwork technique to help with grounding. Breathe in for four counts, hold for four, breathe out four counts, and hold for four. Continue breathing in this way for as long as needed. 

As you focus on your breath, you can also use your sensory feelings to ground yourself further. For example, while taking deep breaths, pay attention to how it feels to lie on your yoga mat or sit in a chair. You can try a guided progressive muscle relaxation meditation or practice positive visualization.

These long and focused breaths are incredible for slowing down and calming the mind. Shallow breaths that stay in your upper chest are often a stress response. Deep abdominal breathing helps ease the nervous system. It can prevent panic attacks and thought spirals, and help you relax. 

2. Practice good sleep hygiene

Sleep is an easy sacrifice for many people when life gets busy and they need more time. Yet, during these times of stress and feeling overwhelmed, our bodies need quality sleep for rest and recovery. 

Here are some tips for good sleep hygiene:

• Keep a stable sleep schedule.
• Establish a relaxing pre-bedtime routine.
• Avoid napping throughout the day.
• Avoid large meals or alcohol right before bed.
• Stay off your phone before falling asleep.
• Regulate your room temperature.
• Ditch afternoon caffeine.
• Improve eating habits.

Quality sleep relies upon your parasympathetic nervous system’s (PSNS) ability to activate. The PSNS is responsible for slowing your body down and relaxing it. 

Pre-bedtime practices that calm your body and mind allow your PSNS to take over for the sympathetic nervous system, which is responsible for your “fight or flight” response. 

By activating your PSNS before bed, you set yourself up for a restful night’s sleep. 

3. Prioritize physical wellness with nutrition and exercise

Food is fuel for your brain and body. Just like sleep, it’s important to prioritize mindfully eating nutritious foods. Ensure you’re nourishing yourself with food to fuel what your body requires. 

For example, grab a piece of fruit and peanut butter instead of a sugary pick-me-up. Make yourself a cup of herbal tea instead of opening a soda or energy drink. Schedule breaks into your day for lunch and snack breaks to ensure you’re always fueling your body. 

Here’s a tip: If you regularly feel overwhelmed from having overcommitted your time and energy, it might be time to pause and take a step back. Look at how your commitments impact your physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Reprioritize your schedule to allow time for things like exercise and eating well.

You probably know the importance of exercise to stay healthy, but did you know stress can get caught in your body? Even once the distressing thoughts are gone, your body can trap the tension those experiences created. It can sometimes be so subtle that you don’t realize it’s there.

It’s important to relieve your body of that tension to help it complete the stress cycle. Typical recommendations include introducing a regular yoga practice or taking daily walks. Both are great options to help lower stress. But the most important thing to keep in mind is moving your body in a way that feels good to you. 

4. Learn to work with your "inner critic"

One of the reasons we might feel ungrounded is if we’re trying to achieve too much in the amount of time we have, especially if we’re aiming for perfection. 

In these moments, an “inner critic” voice may pipe up, one that might be overly judgmental and risk sending you into a thought spiral. 

Here are several ways of working with the inner critic:

• Ignoring it: “I appreciate your input but am choosing not to listen at this time.”
• Appreciating it: “Thank you for your thoughts. I’ll consider them once I’ve completed this next activity.” 
• Engaging with it from a place of curiosity: “What are you most worried about on my behalf?” 

Usually, it’s a protective measure. By surfacing the fears of your inner critic, you can then choose to operate from a different mindset: a place of strength, calm, and stability. 

5. Work on how to identify catastrophizing

For some, the inner critic can bring on catastrophizing. 

Catastrophizing happens when our brains spiral to that worst-case scenario, no matter how feasible it may be. It often happens because we feel absent or ungrounded. In turn, our worst fears overwhelm us with emotion. 

These steps can help guide you to a state of mindfulness:  

• Take some long, deep breaths to calm your sympathetic nervous system. Make sure that the breaths are full and go deeply into your belly.
• After a minute of breathing, name what you’re feeling. For example, notice if your hands feel sweaty or you feel ice cold. By noticing and naming what’s happening, you’re providing a bit of distance from the experience. 
• Then, ask yourself a few questions. Is this story a reflection of what I know to be true, or am I telling myself something that might not be true? What might some other explanations be? What are the facts of the matter? Am I experiencing flashbacks? How can I bring this back to the facts? 
• Zoom out to look at the big picture. Look at the broader picture surrounding you. Find positive or neutral things to comment on. For example, note that the sky is blue or the pillow is soft. By focusing your attention on calming things in your environment, you can help slow down catastrophic thinking.

Having this reaction could indicate you’re in the middle of an amygdala hijack. This is when the limbic, reactive part of your brain kicks into action because it feels threatened. 

Although the threat isn’t real, the body reacts as if it is. You might experience symptoms like a racing heart, sweaty palms, or a hollow or sinking sensation in your gut. 

6.  Spend time in nature

Remember that grounding yourself is often synonymous with “earthing.” When you feel ungrounded, sometimes simply being in nature can be what you need to regulate and reconnect with yourself.

Step outside, look up at the sky, and realize that you’re a small part of a vast universe. This is one of the easiest and most rewarding grounding techniques.

If you can, kick off your shoes and socks and go barefoot to feel the sensations of the earth below. Notice how the ground feels. Is it rough, smooth, damp, or ticklish? What about the temperature? What textures do you see on that tree in your backyard? What do you notice about the leaves as the wind blows? 

Taking a short break or a mental health day to absorb and appreciate nature, whether in a bustling city or quiet suburb, is a great way to get grounded.  

Building your personalized grounding toolkit

Discovering many techniques can be overwhelming if you’re learning to ground yourself. Remember that it’s not a one-size-fits-all approach. You should experiment with different strategies and use the ones that work best for you.

Your goal should be to build a customized “grounding toolkit.” Within it lives all the techniques and pieces of wisdom you’ve learned about yourself to help you stay grounded no matter how overwhelmed you feel. 

If you’re interested in seeking support as you fine-tune your grounding techniques, BetterUp is here to help. Trained coaches will help you organize your thoughts and feelings to develop tactical strategies that are most impactful for you. 

Build reliable grounding techniques with help from BetterUp

The feeling of being ungrounded happens to us all from time to time. 

By slowly implementing even one or two of these techniques, you can feel empowered and in control of your mindset, reactions, and emotions. Soon, you’ll find more calm, clarity, and ease.