In my previous blog about Grounding, I mentioned Mental Grounding. While physical grounding helps calm the body and sensory grounding uses our senses to bring us back to the present, mental grounding is all about focusing the brain.
Mental grounding techniques are great when you can’t do exercises that are obvious to others (like deep breathing or stretching). However, mental grounding might need a bit more practice.
The goal is to guide your brain to calm, structured tasks in the present moment to help you feel less overwhelmed or stressed.
The exercises are intentionally simple, which might make them seem less effective. But trust me, try them!
- Try counting backwards from 100 by e.g. sevens (100, 93, 86, 79 …)
- Recite a poem or lyrics of a song you know
- Pick a category like animals or food, and name an object in this category for every letter of the alphabet
- Describe a familiar task (making a cup of coffee or tea) step by step
- Count items around you, like floor or ceiling tiles, or describe an item in extreme detail (color, shape, structure)
It’s helpful to have several grounding techniques you can use for different situations. Over time, you’ll discover your favorites, but keep practicing all of them.