Grounding Techniques to Use During the Summer Season
Dr. Aaron T. Beck
Grounding techinques
The following grounding techniques are just a few out of many. Feel free to pick and choose one or all of them to try. To see whether any of the below techniques are helpful to you, it may be beneficial to ask yourself “How am I feeling right now on a scale of 1 - 10”, with 1 being the worst you’ve ever felt and 10 being the best you’ve ever felt. Depending on your answers, you may find one grounding exercise more helpful than another.
Change your temperature
3. Mindful Walking
Gentle body movement is a great way to help work through difficult emotions and calm oneself. One way to move one's body gently could be walking mindfully.
How does one walk mindfully, what does that mean?
First, let’s define mindfulness. John Kabat-Zinn (2016), the creator of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, defines mindfulness as “awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, nonjudgmentally.” Essentially, this means paying attention to what comes up at any given moment, whether in our minds/internally or externally, without being critical or judgmental.
So if you find yourself out on a hiking trail or just walking around the block during this warm, summer season, try out the following exercise and see how it works for you!
Before starting your walk, take a mental (or physical) note of how you feel in your body and mind. What is your mood like? Are you tense? Relaxed? Hot? Cold?
Once you start your walk, walk slowly and intentionally. Notice each step - from heel to toe. How do your feet feel in your shoes? Do you notice which leg muscles are being activated? What about your arms and legs and torso?
As you walk, take in the sights, textures, sounds, and smells around you (perhaps use the 5-4-3-2-1 method!).
Breathe in. Breathe out. Keep paying attention to your breath as you walk. Do you notice that it changes? How does the breath feel coming into your body versus going out?
Keep coming back to the present moment, the feeling of walking, and the environment around you. Take it all in and enjoy!
Final thoughts
There are so many different ways to ground yourself that they couldn’t all possibly fit in one blog post. Feel free to make the above techniques your own, personalizing them to you and your situation. If they work for you - great! If you find that they aren’t for you - also great! Now you know what grounding techniques aren’t the best fit and you can now move on to the next exercise! What works for one person may not work for the next, and that’s okay!
Wishing you all a cool, fun summer season!
Blog Sources:
American Psychological Association. (2023). Activity 6.1 mindful walking. https://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/topss/lessons/activities/activity-mindful-walking.pdf
Bertin, M. (2023, March 28). A guided walking meditation for daily life. Mindful. https://www.mindful.org/daily-mindful-walking-practice/
DBT Tools. (2024). TIP skill. https://dbt.tools/distress_tolerance/tip.php
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2016, July 1). Mindfulness for beginners: Reclaiming the present moment and your life. Sounds True.
Raypole, C. (2024, January 29). 30 grounding techniques to quiet distressing thoughts. Healthline.https://www.healthline.com/health/grounding-techniques
University of New Hampshire. (n.d.). What is grounding.
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