Grounding techniques can reduce anxiety, panic attacks and trauma
Some artists and scientists find it difficult to cope with adverse circumstances in life. Grounding techniques can pull away from flashbacks and unwanted memories. They can reduce anxiety and trauma.
“In 1998, while working in R&D department of a manufacturing firm, I asked an expert on mental health and meditation about tips to deal with negativity at workplace. He briefly taught me about a few techniques of Grounding and how practicing it can increase one’s capability to deal with anxiety, trauma and negativity around oneself. I made it a habit to practice them.” Anil Kumar, Co-Founder, SIFF
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Since ages, human beings are involved in many creative endeavors. We have read about many scientists, musicians, actors and painters facing mental health challenges. Vincent Van Gogh shot himself. We watched the story of John Nash in the movie, the Beautiful Mind. Recently, Bollywood actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide and it is suspected that depression and difficult professional circumstances may have forced him to take this drastic step.
Mental health is a very vast domain and a person may require therapy, meditations, coaching, medication and clinical treatment to treat any form of mental illness. Joining a Community or support groups for depression and mental health issues can also make a difference.
In this article, we will explore various grounding techniques for reducing anxiety and trauma.
For our physical well being, we often take all kinds of precautions. For example, we eat the right kind of food and we exercise regularly. We do not strain our body too much. We take precautions while being in extremely cold or extremely hot weather. Unfortunately, we are not taught about the kind of precautions we need to take to safeguard our mental health.
Let’s accept the reality, just like every person is prone to physical ailments, same way every single person is prone to mental ailments of one kind or other. No one is completely immune.
If we learn, take precautions and develop some healthy habits, then we will be able to lower the risks of mental health issues like anxiety, depression, panic attacks and reduce psychological trauma.
Great imagination can sometimes be a curse
People working in creative fields like artists and scientists take quite some stress on their minds. Creative work can often take them to an abstract or an unreal world. Imagination is not real and one may get stuck a bit in one’s imagination. After a while, the imagination can play all kinds of tricks with one’s minds. This can also happen with highly spiritual people.
Having a great imagination is most often a gift. It can enhance one’s inner experiences of the world around. It can be very beautiful and it can fill one with peace, happiness, joy, grace and generosity. However, a disconnect with the ground reality can hit a person hard. The real world is not as pleasant as one’s inner imaginary world.
On the negative side, the power of imagination of minds of artists and scientists can just work against them filling them with all kinds of negative and scary thoughts. If one’s external circumstances are negative, then these negative imagery in mind can simply overwhelm a person. This can lead to severe anxiety, panic attacks and it can amplify the trauma. The pain can become unbearable.
Grounding Techniques can help build resilience
Many day to day professional and creative activities can weaken one’s grounding. Any activity that involves analysis, arts, design, science and even spirituality can sometimes weaken grounding of a person. For example, a highly spiritual person may feel so blissful that he may end up donating every single belonging that he has got. Scientists are known to stretch limits of their mental capabilities and take all kinds of physical and mental risks. Many highly passionate artists also take great risks.
There has to be a fine balance between one’s higher callings and the ground reality. Otherwise, a person can become highly impractical and he may end up as a psychological wreck. People somehow sense un-grounded people and try to take advantages of them or insult and abuse them.
Grounding Technique 1:
Sit firmly on a chair. Close your eyes. Take deep breaths into your stomach. Inhale, hold the breath for a few seconds and then exhale slowly.
Imagine as if you are getting heavier and heavier. Imagine that you are strong tree and roots from your body are flowing into the ground and they are holding onto the ground.
Grounding Technique 2:
Sit on a chair. Close your eyes. Imagine a spherical strong glass shield all around you. Imagine, any stones or objects thrown at you are bouncing off this glass shield.
Ground Technique 3 (Belly Breathing)
Ask yourself: Right now, when I am thinking, where am I located?
(You will feel that you are in your head.)
We are conditioned to believe that the “I”(Me) exists inside our head, may be just behind our eyes. We think from our head.
For a few minutes, imagine you are thinking from your stomach. Practice breathing into and out of stomach. Exhale fast using force from your stomach. Do it a couple of times. Practicing this can gradually reduce the anxiety building up in you.
Other Grounding Techniques:
If you are a man, you can cook some Indian dishes using all kinds of spices. The aroma can ground you. When you exercise your senses, it can get you grounded. In this case, it is the sense of smell that does the trick. One can also put hands in cold water and then followed dipping them in slightly warm water.
https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques
Grounding makes you focus on the present moment and this can suddenly reduce worries and uncontrolled memories of negative incidents in past.
