Mindful Grounding Exercise for Anxiety

A few years ago my friend from graduate school was relating to me how her daughter, who had recently acquired a new job was struggling with anxiety.  She went on to describe to me how she got a great new job bit that one of the requirements of the job was to pass a comprehensive competency test.  It seems that her anxiety was a form of test/performance anxiety.  I suggested that she teach her the mindful grounding exercise.  I will describe it and give examples below.  I’ll come back to the conclusion of this story later.

Step One: Sight

Before you begin doing the grounding exercise you may want to find a few minutes and a place to yourself to concentrate on being mindful.  The first step in the mindful grounding exercise is to identify five things you can see.  Some examples might be…

• I see the window
• I see the door
• I see the lamp
• I see the bookcase
• I see my guitar

Step Two: Touch

The second step is simply to identify four things you can feel with your sense of touch.  Some examples of this are…

• I feel my feet on the ground
• I feel the pen in my hand
• I feel arms resting on the armrests of the chair
• I feel the fan blowing on my skin
• I feel my bottom in the seat of the chair

Step Three: Hearing

The third step is to identify three things you can hear.  For some people, this requires being more mindful than they are used to simply being cluttered with noise.  Examples of this step are…

• I hear the traffic outside
• I hear the dogs
• I hear the fan going
• I hear the air conditioner running
• I hear the neighbors four-wheeler outside

Step Four: Smell

At this stage, it can get a little dicey for some people.  From here on out the exercise requires mindful concentration.  Step four of the grounding exercise is to identify two things you smell.  Examples of this are…

• I smell my coffee
• I smell food
• I smell the room freshener
• I smell clean clothes
• I smell my deodorant

Step Five: Taste

The final step to the grounding exercise is to identify one thing you can taste.  Examples of this are…

• I can still taste my toothpaste
• I can still taste the coffee I drank
• I can taste my mouthwash
• I can taste my gum

Now back to my story from above.  My friend taught her daughter the grounding exercise.  In addition, she told her to do the exercise a few times right before she had to take the test again.  She did it, and consequently, her anxiety was lower and she did great on the test.  This is sometimes called the 1-2-3-4-5 exercise.  And as you can see it’s not complicated at all.  It’s just paying attention to your senses and that can have a dramatic impact on struggles like anxiety, stress, depression, and coping with difficult situations.  This and other exercises can be found here.

Click here to download my Mindful Grounding Exercise Infographic