Reconnect with your body by focusing on physical sensations

The first step - Grounding - An introduction

"Grounding yourself" means to find stability and focus, especially when you're feeling stressed or anxious. It can also mean to reconnect with the present moment and your surroundings.

It is a technique that aims to return you from negative, challenging emotions to the present. It distracts your mind from unwanted experiences to refocus on what is happening right now

For people living with long-term health conditions, grounding, or "earthing," which can involve direct contact with the Earth's surface, may offer potential benefits like reduced inflammation, improved sleep, and pain relief, though more research is needed to confirm its effectiveness.

The science

Research that exists tells us that the mind and body are connected and that by tuning into how you’re physically feeling, you can begin to feel calmer and more centred. That’s because the parts of the brain that control your thinking and planning can sometimes lead to ruminating, which can raise our stress. By focusing on our senses we can break the ruminative cycles, improving even our involuntary functions like blood pressure and heartbeat.

Potential Benefits for people with long-term health conditions:

Reduced Inflammation: Some research suggests grounding may help reduce inflammation, a common factor in many chronic conditions.
Improved Sleep: Grounding may promote better sleep quality, which is crucial for managing chronic conditions and overall well-being.
Pain Relief: Grounding may help alleviate chronic pain, a common symptom experienced by people with long-term health conditions
Stress Reduction: Grounding may help reduce stress, which can exacerbate chronic conditions.
Improved Immune Response: Some studies suggest that grounding may enhance the body's immune response.
Wound Healing: Grounding may promote faster wound healing.

The secret to successful grounding techniques

Tune into your senses to help you ground yourself in the body. Focus on what you can see, feel, hear, smell, and taste. That, and a few deep breaths should make you feel much more connected to your body.

Root-ground your body is a great place to get started with a guided grounding exercise by Jay Shetty.

The poster below has some really simple yet effective physical grounding techniques which require very little time or effort to implement into your day making them great for people with low energy, fatigue and health conditions/disabilities.

The extra step: Have more time?

Tune into the Senses for 6 minutes with Megan Reitz is a quick way to ease stress and ground yourself in the present, a gift from Calm to help you reconnect.

Other grounding techniques you could try include: