Grounding can help you very much if you have feelings of fear, nervousness, restlessness, anxiety, panic, insomnia or dissociation/depersonalization/derealization ("spaced out", unreal). Also here you need to be consistent and start building a new healthier routine for your days. Of course you can adjust the amount of grounding practises with how are you feeling at the moment, but if you include some of these advices permanently to your daily routine, it helps you to stay balanced in the long run. Balance builds up from many small good and sensible deeds and choices that maybe are not always the things you would prefer to be doing. You maybe would like to spend your time hanging in the Facebook or watching the tv etc, and that maybe suited you when you were supressing your feelings and your body´s needs with addictive behaviour, but it is not going to work anymore. You need to start having more restful pauses for your body and mind. But these little "sacrifices" of your time can give you so much in exchange! Feeling more peaceful, content and happy - more in this moment.
So here are some ideas for grounding yourself:
1) Go to the nature. Preferably every day, even shortly. You can walk
or just sit there and relax. Breath the fresh air and feel the ground
under your feet. It is very good if you can go to forest or some other
place that is a little bit away from the city life and it´s crowded parks
etc. There you can really enjoy the silence and feel the amazing energy
that is at the same time both calming and refreshing. I have
had this daily forest walk routine already a long time and I´ll do it
no matter what the weather is: same way if it shines or rains or snows
or is freezing cold. (Oh yes, here in Finland the weather can be often
quite challenging... ;) It is just all about the right kind of clothing
and gear. It is just worth it! Every time I go to the forest, I find the
same peace, joy and gratefulness inside of me.
2) Deep
breathing. It is very common that people breath very shallow and use
only the upper part of the lungs. And when we get anxious or scared we
tend to almost stop breathing or do it in a very fast pace. And that
makes us feel even worse and can even start a panic
attack/depersonalisation feelings. So it is very good to start
practicing a new way of breathing, a deeper way. There´s lots of free
breathing exercises (pranayama) for example in Youtube, but one easy way
is just start to practise yourself by counting to four when inhaling,
then pause for a second, then four for exhaling, and pause again for a
second. And repeat this for some time. You can also start to add little
by little the amount of time that you are using in each phase of the
breathing. But not too quickly. Learn to listen yourself and be gentle!
Breath through your nose and breath down to your belly. Repeat this practise
often, because habits that we have had for a long time don´t change
overnight. So be patient! ;)
3) Regular day rhythm,
routine and enough time for rest and sleeping. Oh yes... many of these
tips are really simple, but it´s another thing to really use them in
your life. Regularly. So, when the times are difficult, it is a very
good thing to go back to basics. Think how you would rhythm a small
child´s days. When to get up? At what times would it be good to eat
(breakfast, lunch, snack, dinner, supper/evening snack)? What time to go
to bed? Once again I mention this indian ancient medicine, ayurveda,
because it can be a very helpful tool to understand yourself better and
to learn different ways to get yourself in balance. So just google
"ayurveda" and you´ll find a lot of information about it. I´ll try to
write an article about that subject at some point. :) So... In ayurveda
there are three different body/personality types and for vata (the most
light-headed) the proper sleeping time is from 10pm to 6am (8 hours),
for pitta 10pm-5am (7 hrs) and for kapha (the least "space-boogier")
10pm-4pm (6 hrs). So different people need different amount of sleep and
it can also vary in different times of the year or in your life. So
learn to listen to yourself. Have time for relaxation and naps. Let
yourself just be, doing nothing.
4)
Bath/massage/touch/physical activity. We stay a lot of the time in our
heads, thinking, planning, stressing, reminiscing... Now we´ll have to
start learning again how to be more in our bodies. How to listen our
bodies. How to take care and respect our bodies. It is important to get
this kind of "bodily work/consciousness" as a part of our daily
routine. It doesn´t have to be a long session. But the regularity is THE
thing - once again. Try to find the ways to connect to your body and
move it the ways you find the most natural and enjoyable just for you
and your body type. Try yoga (different kinds of styles!), taiji,
swimming, walking, biking, hiking, jogging, climbing, gym, playing
different kinds of games together, dancing, contact-improvisation...
( you can find lots of "how to learn..." -videos
in the web.)
But try to leave out any harsh attitudes and learn to have
fun and really enjoy the movement of your body. Remember how joyful it
was when you were a child! Be kind to yourself. Try to
be mindful when moving and let your attention to be fully in your body
and the sensations that rise. Very efficient way to ground yourself is
also massaging. And it is easy to do even by yourself. Oil massage before or
in bath is very soothing and returns you again back in yourself, in this
moment, if you are "floating/spacing out". Even 5-10 minutes is enough,
but it is very good to have this as a regular part of your routine.
Even daily if you are an "airy-fairy"-person like me. Touch also
otherwise works very well and you can learn for example reiki or some
other hands-on healing methods. Once again check the Youtube! And of
course it is luxury if at least sometimes you can find somebody else to
give a massage or touch-healing. Rosen-therapy is amazing as well!
5)
Food. Different kinds of food products can help you in grounding as
well. And a simple rule is just that heavier foods ground you more and
lighter less (or very light foods, for example many raw foods, can even
increase too "light" feelings) and fasting of course is in this
matter the worst of all. Oily foods, wheat, root vegetables, dairy and
nuts are foods that can help. Of course also meat products, but those I
don´t recommend for many other reasons. :) Add more proteins to your
diet! Also warm and moist foods are more grounding than cold and dry.
Warm drinks are recommended, but then again not coffee, black or green
tea or cocoa/cacao (or chocolate, sob... ;) and also many lemonades like
coke and mountain dew, because they all contain some forms of
stimulating substances like caffeine, teaine (don´t remember what it is
called in cocoa, some "-ine" it still is, and affecting the same way)
and these can increase the unwanted spacey feelings. My doctor once told
me that anybody will get a panic attack if he/she is given an amount
of caffeine, that is over their own "limit". In ayurvedic vata types it
basically means complete no-no to these beverages. (Okey, sometimes I just
have to get some chocolate... ;) Herbal and fruit teas are very good
options. But of course you have to just find out your own limits by
trying these things yourself. Learn to listen to your body, what it
needs to feel well. Be your own guru!
6) Cleaning and
keeping things in order. In times of big changes the life can start
to feel chaotic. And a good way to balance that is to have order in
those things you can affect - like your home´s cleanliness. The act of
cleaning is in itself very grounding and can change amazingly fast your
unreal feelings to very "normal" and ordinary. Clean home is also
energetically more pure and you can sense it as a good atmosphere.
7)
You can try to keep your attention more on your first, root chakra´s
area and in your legs/feet. Feel the ground under your every step. You
can also visualize yourself having strong roots that reach the earth
wherever you are. Even high in a plane. And you can ask the Mother Earth
to keep you grounded and feeling safe. You can rub your feet and also
make sure that they stay always dry and warm. That helps the whole body
to be warm, and it then again helps you to stay feeling grounded and
safe.
8) Use your hands. Try gardening, baking,
painting, knitting, wood work... Anything that feels good to you. Touch
and feel with your hands. Get your hands dirty!
9)
Prefer natural materials in your home and in your clothes. Walk barefoot
in the nature and on the wooden or stony floor. Be mindful how it
feels. Enjoy the sensations.
Okey, maybe these are
enough now for the start. :) I´ll add more if some ideas come to my mind that are not yet here and you can also share your grounding tips! :)
