Grounding techniques to manage Anxiety

Anxiety: Self-soothing and grounding

Anxiety occurs when the part of our nervous system associated with fight/flight freeze gets switched on. Something in our environment triggers fear related to past traumas. 

While sometimes that fear is connected to life or death traumatic experiences we’ve had, often the fear is linked with attachment traumas. Attachment traumas may have occurred in a variety of environments -- both loving or neglectful and abusive -- and leave an imprint in our system that causes us to feel insecure in relationships, or feel sadness, anger, or frustration that we don’t quite know what to do with. When anxiety shows up, it’s as if our body is believing that it is in danger right now of being harmed, or losing access to someone we love. 

What do I do when I start to feel anxious?

What we want to do when anxiety shows up, first, is to accept it (not resist it). We want to pay attention, because whether or not the reason for your anxiety is immediately apparent, you are struggling, and something in you is communicating that it needs your care. But what is the best way to care for your anxiety?

Paying attention to the Body

We want to be skilful about how we pay attention to anxiety. Anxiety, above all, is a physical response in the body, and anxious thoughts often come out of that anxious energy. Attending to the anxious thoughts either increases anxiety or does just a very small amount to soothe it. It’s as if your anxiety is a tree -- we want to get to the roots and trunk of the tree to really seek healing. We can cut the branches of the tree, but then there are only more branches, and often branches growing out of those branches. We don’t want to push away the thoughts, but let them come and go, without attaching too much value to them. 

We want to notice where the anxiety is in the body, and what its qualities are. Is it a weight on the chest? Is it a tension, a tightening in the chest? Is it an increase of heart beat? Is the face tight -- the jaw, the forehead? Is it nausea, or a swirling in the belly? 

Being in the body is effective at mitigating anxiety for a couple of reasons.

1: Your body is always in the present. Anxiety is often triggered because the body is responding to a past event. So doing things that bring us into the present moment, and remind the body that it is safe and being cared for in the present, helps to soothe anxiety.

2: Awareness of anxiety in the body helps prevent the anxiety from worsening. When we are unaware of anxiety it continues to act on us and increase, but when it becomes conscious, it begins to loosen and soften. For example, clench your fist and hold it just outside of your gaze. Imagine this is your jaw, chest, or belly when you are anxious. When it is outside our awareness it stays clenched, and you’re walking around all day carrying that tension. As soon as you notice that the fist is clenched, however, you begin to let it release. And the more we bring our care and attention to it, the more it can relax.

Grounding techniques to anchor your attention to the present:

1. Focus on your breath. Observe as you inhale through your nostrils. On the exhale, visualize directing your breath out towards the base of your spine. This directs your attention away from your mind, where we can get lost as thoughts go at a rapid pace, and down into the body, specifically to the muladhara or root chakra.

2. Observe your breath without trying to change it. However your breath is coming out now is perfect -- let it be fast or slow, shallow or deep, clear or impeded. Think about bringing a sense of ease to however it is right now. If it’s difficult to breathe, let there be ease even in that -- don’t go against whatever is happening right now. 

3. Slow your breathing. If it doesn’t increase your anxiety, you can work on slowing your breath down -- inhale for four seconds, pause at the top of the breath for two, and exhale for eight seconds. 

4. Practise mindful breathing. Sit on a couch, chair, or cushion, or lie down in a comfortable place with a folded up blanket or pillow underneath your knees, and a cushion underneath your head. Place one hand over your heart and one hand over your belly. Focus on the rise and fall of the belly as you inhale and exhale. 

5. Do a body scan. Start with the crown of your head -- imagining strings attached to the top of your head pulling your head so that it is parallel with the ceiling. Let this bring an elongation to your neck and an elegant spine. Scan each part of the body, from your head and face, to your shoulders, back, legs, and feet. End with imagining roots stemming from the bottoms of your feet down through the floor -- tree roots that stretch below the floor into the floors beneath you and into the core of the earth -- each layer. As you scan, notice any sensations, emotions, and tension. Allow whatever is here, and whatever arises to be here, not needing to change it. As you notice it you may find that tension begins to loosen, but you don’t need to force it to. 

6. Lay down on the floor with your legs up the wall. Focus on your breath, or the energy in your legs. 

When being in the Body is too much

But sometimes, paying attention to the anxiety in the body is too much. When your level of anxiety is high, paying attention to an increased heart beat, a shallow breath, or a body that feels like it’s your enemy, a traitor acting against you, can increase your anxiety and lead to a panic attack. Or, if you are already having a panic attack, or on the road there, you need simple grounding techniques to help you get calmer, and regulated. 

Grounding techniques for when being in your body is too much: 

1. Pet your dog or cat or another animal. Focus your attention of the feel of your pet’s fur on your hands. Focusing on the sense of touch brings your attention away from the anxious thoughts in your mind, and into the present moment.

2. Take a hot shower or bath.

3. Listen to music. 

4. Walk and focus on each step you take. If you walk outside, notice how the grass, dirt, sand, or concrete beneath you feels. Bring your attention to what you see around you. 

5. Sitting on a couch or chair, press your feet into the ground with all of your strength -- this draws all of your energy down into the earth.

6. Lay down on the floor with your legs up the wall. Listen to music or a podcast to bring your attention outside of yourself while your body relaxes.