10 Grounding Exercises for Anxiety

Calm young female relax on couch at home

10 Grounding Exercises for Anxiety

October 18, 2021

Grounding exercises are coping strategies that can help your mind to refocus on the present and reconnect you to the world around you. As you focus on the exercise, it allows your brain and body to turn off the fight or flight response that is causing anxiety or a panic attack. Grounding exercises focus on increasing your mindfulness of the world around you and your own body. Here are 10 of our favorite grounding exercises to get you started!

1. TikTok Ice Cube Hack

You may have seen this trend floating around TikTok where you use ice or a cold compress to help with grounding. This can include holding a cold compress to your chest, holding ice cubes in your hands, eating ice or holding it against the roof of your mouth, rubbing ice cubes along your face and arms. While you’re doing this try to focus on the sensation of the cold and how it feels on your body. Click here to learn more about why this hack works!

2. 5-4-3-2-1 Calming Countdown

This countdown technique helps you to focus your mind on the world around you and your own body as you countdown.

5- List five things you can see

4- List four things you can feel

3- List three things you can hear

2- List two things you can smell

1- List one thing you can taste

3. Find the Rainbow

The rainbow technique can be used anywhere to find the colors around you and settle your mind. Look around you and find something in each color of the rainbow in order. You can do this as many times as you need.

Red
Orange
Yellow
Green
Blue
Indigo
Violet

4. Distraction Grounding Techniques

Distraction grounding is all about distracting your mind from your anxiety. These techniques can be anything that gets you thinking about something else. Here are a few examples but you can use whatever works best for you!

Describe something you see in detail
Count to 100 by fours
Name all of the blue things you can see
Name items by categories (ie. animals, movies, ice cream flavors, etc.)

5. Foot Outline Grounding Technique

Drawing an imaginary outline around your feet can help focus your mind on your body. You can do it sitting or standing as long as you can see your feet. With your feet on the ground pretend you have a marker that is drawing an outline around each foot. Choose your favorite color in your mind to make it more fun. Start at your heel and draw the outline of your foot (don’t forget your toes!) all the way around. Repeat with the other foot!

6. Grounding Chair Technique

This chair technique can help you visualize the anxious energy leaving your body. Choose your most comfortable or favorite chair and sit down. Make sure your feet can touch the floor. Close your eyes and focus on breathing and how your body feels in the chair. Feel the material of the chair and how it feels against your skin. Picture your anxious energy moving its way from your head down along your body and pooling into your feet on the ground. Push your feet against the ground and picture the energy leaving your body and moving into the floor.

7. Visualize Away Negative Feelings

When you’re experiencing negative thoughts and feelings you can use your imagination to change the channel.

Visualize the negative thoughts as a tv channel or song that you don’t like and press skip to change to something more positive. You can even press mute so that while the negative feelings are there you don’t have to hear them anymore.
Picture yourself putting your negative thoughts and feelings into a garbage bag, smashing them down and throwing them away.
Imagine yourself walking, jogging, swimming, or flying away from negativity and towards positivity.

8. Practice Self-Kindness

Being kind to yourself can help you build your self-esteem and remember that you are worthy of love no matter what! Repeat kind, compassionate phrases to yourself:

“You can make it through this rough patch.”
“You are strong enough to keep going.”
“You are enough, just the way you are.”

Repeat these to yourself either out loud or in your mind as often as you want. Choose any kind phrases that speak to you!

9. Use Your Memory

Use something that you have memorized to focus your mind. Whether it’s song lyrics, a scene from your favorite TV show or a poem that you love, choose something that you know by heart. Repeat the selection in your head or out loud. Focus on the words of the song or poem or picture the TV scene in your mind. If you’re still feeling anxious you can choose another to recite to yourself until you feel calm.

10. Your Favorite Things

Bring some positivity into your day by listing three of your favorite things in a variety of categories. Here are some examples you can choose from: foods, songs, movies, TV shows, books, places, and so on.

There are many more grounding exercises to be found on social media or by doing a quick search. You can even find some by following the Be Present Instagram. Let us know which one is your favorite in the comments below!