Anxiety Relief in… 5-4-3-2-1
Grounding techniques for managing anxiety
The purpose of this article is to briefly review and introduce an effective grounding technique for managing your anxiety, but before we get into it, I want to tell you a bit about why it works first.
What we’ll be briefly practicing today is what’s called a grounding exercise. Grounding exercises or techniques are simply strategies we can use when feeling overwhelmed or when noticing our anxiety escalating to bring us back into the present and to pull us away from those distressing feelings. Most often they work by focusing our attention on sensory experiences, though others may encourage us to conjure particular thoughts and sensations as well. This will vary from technique to technique, and you may find that certain sensory exercises are more effective than others for you in particular— but that’s the gist of it.
The reason these ground techniques work is because anxiety is anticipatory— it’s a sort of getting ahead of ourselves and the moment and worrying about something in the future that may or may not happen. Our senses however are in the present! They’re constantly happening, and if we can tune into them a bit more, it makes it easier to pull back from anxiety. This will also free up your cognitive and emotional resources to engage with other anxiety-management strategies like challenging any unhelpful thoughts. Grounding techniques slow us down by intentionally drawing our attention into our bodies, often resulting in slower, deeper breathing and profound shifts in our bodies towards a state of calm relaxation.
Today’s strategy: The 5-4-3-2-1 grounding exercise
Okay, so let’s get into it. Today we’re going to be doing a classic and very easy grounding exercise called a 5-4-3-2-1. You’ve maybe heard of it or you’ve even done it before and are here for the refresher, but this one is a classic for a reason!
Before getting started, I want you to take a “thermometer reading” of your anxiety on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being relatively no to non-existent anxiety and 10 being the most severe anxiety you’ve ever felt. We’ll be taking another reading at the end of this exercise to help gauge the usefulness of this and other strategies when you implement them.
To get started, I want you to first firmly plant your feet on the ground (if you’re seated in a chair), feeling your butt firmly planted in the back of the seat. Elongate the spine and neck, pulling the shoulders gently back and down and opening the chest in a comfortable, attentive, and confident stance. You can imagine a string running from the base of the spine through the crown of your head and gently pulling you toward the ceiling, if that helps. Ultimately you’ll want to do what’s comfortable for you, but it can help to be a bit less slouchy and to open up the torso to make room for the breath.
We’re gonna start by taking a deep breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth. Just follow your natural breath for now, and see if you can bring attention to it, following it as it moves through the nose, down the back of the throat, into the stomach, lungs, and chest, and then out ending at the lips. You might wish to find a place along the breath where your awareness of it is the strongest, like at the back of the throat or edge of the nostrils, and focus there for a bit.
Now, gently place a hand on your stomach (just over the belly button) and a hand on your chest. Focus your breathing into the stomach so that the hand on your stomach pushes out while the hand on your chest remains relatively steady until the top of the breath. This is called diaphragmatic breathing and is especially useful for communicating calm throughout the body. Stay here for a while and track the breath, focusing on taking deep belly breaths as you settle in.
Now, I want you to begin shifting your focus to your senses. If I tap a sense that you don’t have access to (e.g., if you experience blindness), just feel free to stay with the breath a while longer instead. If your eyes were closed until this point, I want you to open them. Begin by drawing attention to your sight and noting 5 objects you can see in the room around you. Maybe you notice your unmade bed, a houseplant, or the placement of your computer. Whatever it is, take time to really turn these over in your mind and indulge the sense of sight. How does the light hit these objects? What is their color and hue? Is it warm or cool, and does it change with the light? How about the texture? Is there a pattern in the object, or is it random? Take your time here, and see if you notice things around you that you ordinarily may miss.
Now, we’re going to bring our attention to feeling. You may wish to close your eyes at this time, but if you’re practicing this in public, it’s totally fine to keep your eyes open and steadily pointed ahead of you. I want you to now note 4 things you can feel in this moment. It may be the fabric of your clothes against your legs, it may be where your butt meets the chair, or it may be the experience of hunger or fullness. Take your time with each sensation you can feel, and really indulge it. What is the texture of this feeling? Does it have heat or coldness? If it were a shape, what shape would it be? Is it pleasant or uncomfortable? Again, take your time here and feel into these sensations without judgment.
Okay, moving now into 3 things you can hear. This may feel harder than it is, but ordinarily there are tons of sounds around us that our brain filters out. As I am typing this, I can hear the sound of morning birds chirping outside, cars passing the front of my house, and my neighbors bustling in their home. I could even pick out several bird calls if I wanted to. Tune into each of these sounds, and listen closely for its cadence, its lifting and falling, and its coming and going.
Lastly, I want you to draw your attention to 2 things you can taste or smell. This one is understandably more difficult than the others, which is why we’ve set the bar a bit lower! You may taste this morning’s breakfast or coffee in your mouth, smell the neutral crisp air around you, or taste a generic taste of saliva. What do these tastes and smells feel like to you? Are they bitter, sweet, sour, salty, or savory? Are they pleasant or unpleasant? Are you salivating more as you draw attention to them? And how does it feel when your breath hits your nose and activates your sense of smell and taste? Stay here for a moment more and indulge these sensations.
To conclude, I want you to think of 1 thing you’re grateful for today. When we’re feeling low, gratitude can be hard to come by; yet, research has shown time and again that the practice of gratitude can go a long way in promoting feelings of happiness and satisfaction with our lives. See if you can find even the smallest thing to be grateful for, like your ability to experience one of the five senses we just reviewed. Don’t force it, but see if you notice a change in how your body feels when sitting in this gratitude. You may, for example, notice a warmth in your chest, a lightening of your shoulders, or a radiating heat throughout your body. Draw attention to this soft and pleasant feeling, and end today’s practice with the intention of carrying this forward throughout your day.
Take in a final few deep breaths, and if you’ve closed your eyes, open them on an exhale.
Now as before, take a thermometer reading of your anxiety on a scale from 1 to 10, with 1 being relatively no to non-existent anxiety and 10 being the worst anxiety you’ve ever experienced. Do you notice any differences? Even something as subtle as going from a 7 to a 6 can begin to relax the body and free up cognitive and emotional resources to engage with other anxiety-reducing strategies. This can also help to stop our anxiety from escalating to the point of panic or overwhelm or simply encourage more positive sensory experiences throughout the day.
I sense greater calm in your future
I hope you’ve enjoyed this brief opportunity to engage your senses and to take in the world around you. Our senses are always with us and at the ready, and so often we miss the opportunity to really enjoy the buffet of sensory experience around us. Engaging your senses can go a long way in pulling you out of your anxiety by situating you clearly in the present, and practicing this and other grounding techniques often will ensure you are well-equipped to respond to your anxiety rather than to avoid it when it rears its head. You can do this anywhere, at anytime without others even noticing, so don’t be shy and give it a try!
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