Mindfulness Exercise: Grounding Yourself
If you are feeling overwhelmed at times, you are experiencing a normal reaction to the current pandemic. But a sense of feeling overwhelmed — along with feeling panicked or helpless — can be hard to manage.
Grounding can help you when you may have gone too deeply into your thoughts and feel panicky or when things seem out of your control. This exercise is helpful for both children and adults.
Here is how you ground yourself in the present:
– Breathe in deeply through your nose and out through your mouth.
– Look around you and find …
* 5 things you can see
* 4 things you can touch
* 3 things you can hear
* 2 things you can smell (or 2 scents that you enjoy)
* 1 emotion that you feel
Be still, and continue to breathe deeply in and out.
