Meditation

Grounding Exercises for Anxiety To bring You Back to The Present, Now!

By Jade Doherty

Don’t worry, here’s help for your anxiety with these 4 grounding exercises to bring you back to calm and the present moment, now!

Living with anxiety is hard, and touches every area of life. Then on top of the anxiety, there can be a sense that you "shouldn't" feel this way. That you "should" be able to handle it, or not be affected.

Which leads to even more anxiety!

Sometimes this anxiety feels like a background gnawing feeling like they're never completely at ease, and at other times it can manifest as a full-blown anxiety attack or panic attack.

The American Psychological Association defines anxiety as "an emotion characterized by feelings of tension, worried thoughts and physical changes like increased blood pressure" adding that "People with anxiety disorders usually have recurring intrusive thoughts or concerns. They may avoid certain situations out of worry. They may also have physical symptoms such as sweating, trembling, dizziness or a rapid heartbeat".

Living with anxiety is incredibly difficult.

How does grounding relate to anxiety?

One of the difficulties that come with anxiety is the feeling of getting lost. Each thought spawns a new thought, and there's no relief from the never-ending thoughts and stresses your mind throws at you.

Grounding brings you back to your body, and back to the present.

Anxiety is typically stress about the future, and what will happen. By coming back to the body, and back to the present, we can start to untangle ourselves from the stress of the mind.

You can't solve anxiety by answering its questions. Just as someone who is greedy will never be satisfied by any amount of money (as the nature of greed is to want more), so too the nature of anxiety is to be anxious. As they say, haters 'gon hate, anxiety 'gon anxious.

So, by bringing your focus to the body and the present moment, we come out of the realm of anxiety and back to stability. You can't beat anxiety on the battleground of anxiety. The way to "win" is to come out of the field of anxiety, and back to the land of the present moment.

But it's really hard!

I know! I know it is.

When you're in that anxious state someone saying "Try these grounding exercises for anxiety" can feel as annoying as someone telling you to calm down when you're angry!

You feel out of control and powerless. Overwhelmed with emotion and lost in the anxiety of the mind. You might also feel hopeless and helpless like there's nothing you can do to combat this anxiety.

These three exercises are designed to bring you out of the realm of anxiety, the mind thought, and back into your body and the present moment. They're simple and can be used whenever you need them.

I'd suggest practicing them all now to get a feel for them, and then using them as often as you need. You might even like to leave yourself a note or reminder somewhere to encourage you to do them the next time you need to.

Having tools to combat anxiety starts to bring your power back to you. You don't have to face it alone or empty-handed. There are tools and techniques you practice.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1

This is a very simple grounding exercise of observing and bringing your focus to different sensory inputs. Doing so brings you out of thought, and into the present moment.

It works by you noticing various physical sensations around you, feeling into your senses, rather than your mind.

To practice it, you simply notice:

5 things you can see

4 things you can touch

3 things you can hear

2 things you can smell

1 thing you can taste

Give that a go now. Look around you and notice 5 things you can see.

And then move onto touch.

And so on, keep going through all 5 senses.

There might be chaos in your mind, but that isn't the only thing that exists. All the things you've just noticed and named also exist.

Move!

Another great way to combat an anxiety spiral is to move. To get out of your head and back into your body.

For some that might look like dancing. Putting on your favorite song and dancing it out for a few minutes. For others running, or even doing some yoga postures. If you have a ball, going outside and kicking or throwing it around can be a great relaxation technique.

Movement helps you ground and brings more feeling to your body. We rely a lot on our minds so it's natural we'd put a lot of focus there, but the body also exists, and moving around and bringing focus and attention back to the body is a great way to combat anxiety.

Breathing

Breathing techniques are also incredibly useful ways to overcome anxious thoughts.

Ancient yogis discovered a deep connection between the mind and the breath, and that by changing one we can affect the other. It's much easier to change your breath and affect your mind than it is the other way around!

Every emotion has a corresponding breathing pattern. Stress looks like short, shallow breaths. Happiness looks like deeper, smoother breaths. By working with the breath we can work with the mind.

Straw Breath is a simple technique to help calm a busy, anxious mind.

1 - Sit comfortably with a straight spine

2 - Take a gentle inhale in through your nose

3 - Purse your lips as if they were around a straw

4 - Exhale fully, keeping your lips around the imaginary straw. Do this slowly and steadily

5 - Inhale again through your nose, and slowly out through the imaginary straw

6 - If you can try to breathe into your abdomen. Feeling it rise and fall as you do this exercise

7 - You can also add a breath count. Inhaling for a count of 4, and out for a longer count, of 6-8. Just make sure the exhale is longer than the inhale

8 - Continue breathing in this way for a few minutes

A long-term solution to anxiety

These exercises are great short-term solutions for when you need help and you need it fast!

Having a coping skill or two to combat anxiety is great, but reducing anxiety in the long run so that it no longer bothers you is even better!

SKY Breath Meditation is one such solution. Tried and tested, it has been found by researchers to reduce anxiety, PTSD, stress, and depression (amongst other things).

This means that you not only have a ton of techniques to manage anxiety, but you also reduce the amount that you have to manage.

SKY Breath Meditation is simple. A lot of people try meditation without a teacher or effective technique and end up struggling. SKY is different. By working with the breath you are able to affect fast change and find it much easier to meditate.

SKY was created by world-renowned spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and has changed the lives of millions of people around the world.

And you're next!

Join us for Beyond Breath

Beyond Breath is an introduction to SKY. The intro is totally free, and an experienced instructor will teach you a breathing technique and guide you through it so you can experience it for yourself. They'll also be on hand to answer any questions you have about SKY and how it works.

You don't have to face anxiety alone and empty-handed. Let us give you the tools you need to overcome anxiety and live a calmer, happier life.

Click below to sign up and get some much-needed tools!