When you feel yourself beginning to worry about a thought, that leads you to another thought, and your heart rate starts to increase, your chest tightens, anxiety grows, and you may feel more of the following:
Muscles tense
Respirations fast in upper chest
Skin colour changes to paler
May feel sweaty and cold
Hands and feet go cold
Digestion stops
Feel fear or rage
Contact with self and others is limited
Contact with your rational part of your brain may be inaccessible.
Integration with the world around you is not likely.
The “What If’s” take over and suddenly you’re back up there, working from your head in a “Top Down” way. You may spiral into anxiety and fears, that feel so familiar.
When you notice this happening, see this as an opportunity to try some grounding techniques.
Why?
Because it stops you in your racing tracks. It can help us to re-orient ourselves and re-focus back into a more present moment. Yes the fears and the big bad world still exist.
But what we are trying to do is stop that massive stress hormone dump that adds to more feelings of being unsettled and out of control.
We are trying to gently help our nervous system from feeling overwhelmed, and the more we can stop it, ground and come back into the moment (which is what grounding is) then we can help our body to calm down.
The more we practice it, the more we feel calm and the more it will help us to reconnect with ourselves and hopefully our rational voice can be heard again.
When you are racing away down the racetrack, try one of these suggestions.
Remember Grounding Techniques take practice. At first practice the techniques when you feel calm, that way when you need them, you will be familiar with what you are trying to do.
It’s okay to get it wrong, so keep practising. You’ve got this!
If it doesn’t work for you, then that’s okay, keep looking.
There are plenty out there online and you will find one that suits you.
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