FLOODED and Feeling Like You’re Underwater?
The COVID-19 global pandemic released a tsunami of changes throughout all levels of society. With the uncertainties that have been stirred up, to say that people are anxious is a severe understatement, and learning how to ground is a remedy for that.
So many people are:
Concerned about their own and their loved ones’ health
Worried about employment and income
Trying to figure out how to pay the bills and keep food on the table
Trying to prevent anyone in the family from killing each other
Trying to figure out how to just get by each day, let alone be productive or creative
Feeling deep shame from seeing others carry on with so much ease and fun
Feeling trapped and alone
Feeling grief and despair
If people have already suffered from depression, anxiety, and strained relationships before all of this, they may be feeling that they’re even more underwater during these times.
If you’re feeling inundated with overwhelming information and emotions, and numbness is the only way to keep sane during these times, grounding techniques can regulate your nervous system and help you stay in the present and focused to do whatever you need to do. Here is one of those techniques.
How to Ground: Top 2, Bottom 2 - The Five Senses Method
Our thoughts and emotions can be everywhere and be about everything. Our bodies, however, can only be at one place at one time. Use your physical body to anchor yourself to the present.
What are Your Top 2/Bottom 2 Senses?
Check in with how you are with each of the five senses: sight, touch, hearing, taste, and smell.
Which are your Top 2 senses that you are MOST connected with and feel most readily stimulated/soothed? (Which senses do you feel the most bothered and/or comforted by?)
Which are your Bottom 2 senses that you are LEAST connected with and that takes the most effort to notice? (Which senses do you forget the most easily?)
USE YOUR TOP 2 TO GROUND:
Survey your living environment with your Top 2 senses in mind. What stands out to you, for better and for worse?
What objects aggravate you that you could replace with something that’s soothing?
How can you reduce what bothers you and increases what comforts you?
(This could also be abstract - for example, scheduling some face-to-face interactions at the end of the day may give your body some relief by offering something pleasant to look forward to.)Check the table below for some specific examples per sense.
Now that a more grounding environment has been created, focus on the Bottom 2 senses that you tend to not notice as often.
Use Your Bottom 2 to Ground:
Distraction is not always a bad thing! Intentionally distracting yourself when you feel overstimulated is a useful self-care skill.
Check the table below for some specific exercises to do to give your brain something else to focus on.
Looking to help your loved ones how to ground? Check out my next post.
Do your BIG Feelings always TAKE OVER, ruining important moments or derailing your goals?
Grab this free guide that helps you handle feelings like a pro when they show up at the "wrong place" or "wrong time"!
© Copyright 2021 Joanne B. Kim. All rights reserved.
JOANNE B. KIM, lMFT
Joanne is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist and Certified Brainspotting Practitioner in San Jose, CA, who loves helping people create emotionally thriving relationships. She helps people EXHAUSTED by anxiety, shame, and an allergic reaction to anger create VIBRANT relationships where they matter, too.
Many of her clients are:
(1) the highly responsible, conscientious, and empathic types
(2) Enneagram Type Ones, Twos, Fours, or Nines
(3) Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs)
(4) adult survivors of emotional abuse and neglect
The most common words spoken by those who’ve sat with Joanne:
“I thought it was just me. I’m NOT crazy!”
“I can finally figure out what to do with all these feelings!”
Does this resonate?
Proudly helping women, healers, pastors, caregivers, and Highly Sensitive Persons (HSPs) who are EXHAUSTED by anxiety, guilt, shame, and an allergic reaction with anger create VIBRANT relationships where THEY MATTER, TOO!
Enneagram, EMDR, and Brainspotting Therapy in the Silicon Valley (Santa Clara County - San Jose, Los Gatos, Campbell, Cupertino, Saratoga, Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Los Altos, Milpitas) and the San Francisco Bay Area. Offering telehealth video sessions in California.
The three Enneagram instincts (Self-Preservation, Social, and Sexual) instincts show up in the way we engage our lives and creative endeavors. Check out this conversation with Rim from The Empowered Sensitive and Creative Podcast!