Grounding (May Mini's Series)

Show Notes
Two more tools to add to your growing toolkit for stress management, emotion regulation and mental health support. Today we are covering 2 skills used for grounding and helping our brains to be more present. These are super useful when struggling with panic, anxiety, high stress or difficulty regulating emotions. These two exercises help turn your prefrontal cortex ON which helps to counter-balance your stress center. They are also AWESOME to try with kids when they are struggling to regulate - I swear by these at my house!

5-4-3-2-1
Name 5 things you see, 5 things you hear, 5 things you feel (tactile touch, NOT emotional feelings)...
...then 4 of each ...then 3 of each ...then 2 of each ...then 1 of each.

Alphabet Game
Choose a category (eg. fruits and vegetables; movie titles; actors/actresses; song titles; singers/bands; countries; etc.) and work through that category from A-Z trying to find one word within that category for each letter of the alphabet. If you get stuck, skip and move on -- no one is judging your ability to find a word for each and every letter, we're just trying to get your prefrontal cortex to activate, so if you are stuck on a letter and it's ADDING stress, skip it!

Episode Challenge:
Try one or both of these exercises when you feel like your emotions or mood are getting the better of you. The more consistent you are in using them, the better they'll work, so try to notice when you tend to feel more dysregulated and work to bridge these activities into these times/spaces/situations. It might be helpful to write them down on some sticky notes and put them in key places where you would see them when feeling dysregulated - like on your dashboard if you get stressed while driving, or on your shopping list if you struggle in stores, etc. You can also tell a loved one about this so they can help prompt you to initiate the activity and you can turn it into a game together! 

Struggling with emotions, mood and dysregulation? Use our free Beating the Breaking Point Indicators Checklist & Triage Guide to self-assess your risks for burnout and to make some adjustments to support resilience, wellness and sustainability. 

Additional Resources:

Learn more about the Beating the Breaking Point Resilience Series & Survival Guide – a complete program that offers a step by step road map to build a plan for sustainability and wellness, designed just for First Responders & Front Line Workers and the challenges you face. This program was painstakingly developed to fill the gaps in your training and shows you how to invest strategically in YOU, so that you can continue to invest so much into others and your community. We make registering for this program as risk free as possible, and offer group pricing for 10+ participant staff training. Click the link above to learn more and register, or reach out to [email protected] with any questions and for group rates.

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