Conscious Self Care: Go From Stressed to Blessed
Grounding Techniques for Anxiety and Stress
Our relationship with feeling grounded is directly related to how we deal with anxiety and stress. Are you deficient in your ability to feel safe and secure? Are you excessive in your desire to feel satiated and satisfied? Look at the following characteristics to see where you fall on the spectrum of being grounded.
| Deficiency Characteristics | Excess Characteristics |
| Feeling disconnected from the body | Rigid Boundaries |
| Find it difficult to stay organized | Greed |
| Poor boundaries | Obesity |
| Anxious, easily afraid, restless | Hoarding |
| Financial problems | Fear of change |
| Underweight | Hyper focused on feeling secure |
Depending on if you feel more deficient or in excess when it comes to being grounded, try one of the following grounding techniques to reduce anxiety and stress.
Exercises for those feeling deficient in grounding:
Get Present.
When we panic or feel overwhelming anxiety, stress, or worry it is a response to a real or perceived threat. All too often in our everyday lives our safety is not truly in danger when we feel anxious but our “fight or flight” response to threats (perceived or real) makes us react in ways as if our lives were on the line (rapid heart beating, shortness of breath, freezing, etc). Finding ways to increase your feelings of groundedness and connection to the present moment, allows us to decipher real from perceived threats.
COLORS TECHNIQUE
One easy and quick way to get grounded in the present moment in everyday life is to try and notice how many items in your present surroundings are red. Then repeat with another color. And so on until you feel more connected to present moment. Focusing on specific items in the room forces you to stay connected to were you truly are and reconnect with reality.
SKULL SHINING BREATH
Another thing you can do when you are feeling overwhelmed with anxious thoughts during your day is to engage in breathing technique called Skull Shining Breath. This breathing technique helps you clear out thoughts and brings about a sense of clarity and connection with the present moment. For more information on how to complete skull shining breath, click here. This is a great pre-bedtime technique for those that suffer from worrying thoughts right before going to sleep.
VISUALIZATION MEDITATION PROMPT
Finally here is meditation prompt that you may choose to incorporate into your self-care routine to better your ability to stay grounded.
Seed Visualization
Take a moment to visualize a seed growing in the dirt.
Relish in the imagery of your seed growing up through the dirt
Not inspite of the dirt, it needed it’s nutrients to grow
But through the dirt
Persevering through the heavy weight of the dirt
Feeding itself and Growing
Rising to the surface of the earth
And prospering as it reaches for Nourishment
As you continue to breathe in and out
Let your soul dance and rejoice with the seed
As it receives sunshine and light
Take a moment with the seed to be grateful for abundance and prosperity
Take a moment with the seed to reflect on its journey
Marveling in its conspiracy with the universe to survive
Stay aware of the your breath
Considering your inhale
And noting your exhale
As you witness the fruits of a strong foundation
As you witness self -preservation
Focusing on this grounding affirmation, I leave you to meditate on your own visualizing your seed:
I exist in this world safely and securely
Exercises for those feeling excessive in grounding:
Practicing non-attachment.
It is part of the human condition to avoid suffering at all costs and cling to pleasure. In fact Buddhism teaches us that the main cause of suffering is attachment and clinging. Our ability to hone our skills to accept things as they are and learn to let go of our notions of how things should be is directly aligned with or ability to experience happiness. When it comes to excessive grounding, or the clinging to pleasure and existence, our ability to accept ourselves and our lives as ENOUGH, is key to developing a healthy relationship with grounding.
Reflective Journaling
Take some time to reflect on your relationship to satisfaction by answering the following journal prompt questions:
- What are you most attached to in this world?
- What situations, states, things or people are you clinging to and what motivates this over-attachment to these things?
- What you do if you could never have this person, situation, or thing again? If it something that you must have like food, what your life be like if you could no longer over indulge?
- What are some ways that you could still experience contentment without what you are clinging to?
Burning Attachment
Swami Kriyananda teaches a powerful exercise for developing non-attachment. Over the course of the week, each night before going to bed you are imagine a bonfire destroying some aspect of your life that your ego is attached to. The key is to focus on burning your attachment to these things, remembering that nothing is inherently bad. However it is our attachment to things that we must rid ourselves of to truly increase happiness and decrease stress.
- The first night you are to envision burning all of your possessions. This includes your house and everything in it. Importantly Swami dictates that you meditate on what you gain (freedom) and not your loss.
- The second night you are to burn all your attachments to home, country, church, or any other kind of membership. Keeping in mind that God (or whatever you choose to call the Divine orderly chaos of the Universe) is an ultimate truth and is not confined to any religion or group. Again this is not to say you burn your connection with your church, but burning any over-identification or attachment of your membership defining you.
- Third you burn all desires/expectations for others to validate your existence and fill you up including consideration, respect, admiration, acknowledgement, etc.
- On the fourth night you are to burn false pedestals of pride in pedigree, of position, or skill in anything. Again meditate on how you are so much more than any accomplishment or skill.
- This night you are to burn self-definition and let go of labels that can never truly define your infinite existence such as race, age, gender, nationality, job, or ability.
- Meditate on the fact that you are the master of your own self by burning any expectations for your life or what other people might bring to you or offer you in the future.
- Finally you are to burn your ego that immaturely clings to a sense of human identity. We are more than ego, than this human body, and your final task is open yourself to the impermanence of the human experience. By burning attachment to ego, you ultimately validate your true divine Spirit that dwells within.
Flow, Don’t Force
If you want to live a life that you glide through life’s challenges and live with minimal stress it is essential that you begin to develop a sense of flowing, not forcing. By this I mean, begin to approach life in a more organic way that goes with the grain, instead of against this. Here are some tips to begin flowing in life and not forcing yourself through life:
- Look at life’s challenges as an opportunity to grow, by taking responsibility of your life. Always look for ways to better yourself and look at stressors as way to make you even better in the future.
- Maintain a mindful state of being. For me meditation is a life practice, not just something I do at designated times. Approach life in a way that you are always curious about how you experiencing each moment, and how you can adapt better to your environment.
- Decide to be an optimist. Make a habit of looking for the best in situations, and find satisfaction in the mundane. The more we develop the ability to be easily satisfied, happy, and thankful, the less we are stressed.
I hope these tips help and let me know what you do to stay grounded!
– Tiffany Shelton, M.A. is a psychotherapist and consciousness expert. Her passion to elevate consciousness goes beyond the message of self-care or wellness, but instead consciously adds to these movements by demanding awakening and insight. Learn more about Tiffany Shelton by clicking here.
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