>> Hi, everyone.
I'm Dr. Hernandez from Cerritos College Student Health.
And today, we're going to get into grounding skills.
Now, you might be wondering: what is grounding?
Well, grounding is a set of simple strategies
to help us just have a sense of space from our thoughts
or emotions that might be too strong
or we're just feeling stuck in them.
They're too persistent.
So, before we get started, just a few pointers.
One, when we practice these skills,
you can practice them just about anywhere just about any time.
And we can try these when we're, again, experiencing a thought
or emotion too intensely or maybe for too long.
Whatever your experiences might be during this,
try to stay neutral
so the experience you're having is neither good nor bad.
Just kind of be curious about it.
And, before we get started, rate the intensity
of the emotion you're experiencing at this moment.
Maybe it's tension, stress -- maybe it's happiness?
And just rate it from 1 to 10.
Now, again, rating the intensity isn't
about calling it good or bad; it just is.
So, one of the first forms of grounding is mental grounding.
Now, it's hard to really think
about two things well at the same time.
And so that's where mental grounding comes in,
especially when, you know,
you have certain thoughts running through your mind.
Practicing some of these skills have a way of kind
of teasing out those thoughts.
So, the first thing we can do is play a categories game.
You might think of all the different types
of dogs there are, or maybe music artists
from a certain genre, or maybe sports teams, right?
And just do it until maybe you run out of answers.
Or describe an everyday activity in great detail.
This might be steps to a recipe.
It might be as simple as saying, okay,
I'm going to put a pot on top of the stove.
I'm going to fill it with water.
I'm going to wait for it to reach a boil.
And so on.
Or you can use humor, whether that's a funny joke you remember
or a funny movie scene.
Using our mental space in this way, again, teases out some
of those thoughts that might be too persistent.
I know, for me, I really like the categories game.
I like thinking like, for instance, you know,
pitchers on the 1992 Dodgers team or something like that,
because it really keeps my mind busy.
But you might notice things that work for you.
So just try to kind of play around with that, okay?
Next we have physical grounding.
This is a way for us to use our five senses to,
you know, stay present.
And again, if we're experiencing these thoughts or emotions
for too long or too intensely, using our senses have a way
of bringing us back from them.
So we'll practice something in a moment,
but here are just some ideas.
So using water, right?
So paying attention to the water as you drink it,
noticing the cool water feels cool,
noticing the cool water entering your body,
noticing how your body reacts to that.
Or running cool or warm water
over your hands, or maybe your face.
Maybe touching objects around you and paying attention
to the texture, paying attention to the colors, the materials,
the temperature as you touch it.
Again, using our bodies.
Maybe taking a few moments to stretch and notice what it feels
like as, you know, you extend your limbs
and paying attention to the stretch.
And stretching tends to be good for us, so it's good to practice
that from time to time.
Now, like I mentioned, I thought we would try something
real quick.
So what I have here is just a wooden box -- you can see here.
And when I'm doing this grounding,
I might just take a look at it and notice it and notice it
as though I'm seeing it for the first time
and noticing this kind of deep wood, kind of cherry color,
right, along the sides.
And I'm noticing that it mostly feels smooth
but I could notice some of kind of a grainy feel
around it on some parts.
And then as I notice this, I notice the wood.
I notice just some texture changes from the wood.
And I can notice the carving.
So you can see there's kind of like a wolf howling
at the moon , and I can just pay attention to that
and I can notice the indents and the change in the texture.
And as I just kind of feel around, I can notice
that the box seems to kind of warm
as I'm putting my fingers around it.
And so if I spend just some time on this, I'm just noticing,
feeling, just really engaged here.
And that's exactly what we're trying to do
with these activities.
So, moving forward, we also have what's called
soothing grounding.
Now, soothing grounding can be done a lot of different ways,
but it might be as simple as thinking
about your favorite things,
thinking about your favorite color, your favorite season,
food, maybe your favorite kind of landscape.
Whatever it might be, just taking a few moments
to really think about those things.
Or it could be something like imagining
or looking at calming scenes.
This could be imagining, you know, the beaches or the forest.
It could be imagining or looking at photos of loved ones.
And for some people, you know, maybe they put these
like a photo album in their phone
so that they can take it out.
The other thing you can do is maybe tell yourself a coping
statement, like when things get challenging and you're worried
about how things are going or what's going to happen.
It may not seem like a lot but telling yourself
that you can handle this.
And when we tell ourselves this and we're telling ourselves this
in place of something maybe not as enthusiastic or not
as helpful for us, it has a way of kind
of changing our mentality, at least in that moment.
So do try giving some of these things a try.
You might find that they're helpful.
And you know, the other thing too is that it's really helpful
to just give it a shot.
And they might not work right away, so it's helpful
to practice often and practice before the thoughts
or emotions get too intense if you can.
Sometimes it's hard to notice or sometimes they come
on pretty strongly, but try many times throughout the day
and then try out these different ideas.
Or maybe you have some other ideas for mental, physical,
or soothing grounding -- that's all right.
But try these out so you can see what works for you.
And then what some people find helpful is to make an index card
with some of those grounding strategies you might find
most helpful.
Or maybe making a note in your phone so that
when you are stressed and you're having a hard time thinking
about those, you might be able to look back at that index card
or that note in your phone and then it's right there for you.
And you're like, oh, okay.
I remember I like to do this.
I like to take a moment to take a sip of water
and really pay attention to it.
Or I'd like to look at that photo album of calming scenes.
So play around with these and you might notice
that they give you at least some break from some of the stress
or tension you might be feeling.
So again, hope this is helpful and hope you are well.