Your heart is racing. You’re breathing fast. You have that sick feeling in your stomach. You know you’re feeling overwhelmed with anxiety. You hate when you start feeling this way and you don’t know how to stop it or change it.
Managing the symptoms of anxiety is overwhelming. It can be hard to know how to calm down, especially at the moment when you’re dealing with anxiousness. You don’t have to feel overtaken by anxiety and fear. Grounding skills can help you learn to cope with anxiety, and anxiety therapy can help.
Do grounding techniques really work for anxiety?
It’s hard to know if all the talk about grounding skills is actually effective or if it’s hokey pokey without any actual real evidence that it works for anxiety. When you are feeling anxious, the sympathetic nervous system kicks in with the “fight or flight” response. It doesn’t matter if you are in danger or not, your brain doesn’t know for sure and responds as if you are in danger and need to deal with a threat. This is when your body responds to those annoying anxiety symptoms. Grounding techniques are effective and activate what is known as the parasympathetic nervous system. This helps the body rest and calm itself. Grounding skills reduce your heart rate, lower your blood pressure, and other physical symptoms to help your body calm.
What are anxiety symptoms?
When the sympathetic nervous system is activated, it will have a direct impact on the body. These are some of the common anxiety symptoms:
Racing heart
Shallow and rapid breathing
Muscle tension and tightness
Sweaty and clammy
Nausea or butterflies
Irritability or feeling on edge
Difficulty controlling worried thoughts
Insomnia or difficulty sleeping
Loss of focus or trouble concentrating
How often to practice grounding tips for anxiety?
This depends on the individual and their specific anxiety struggles but I can confidently say if everyone practiced grounding skills for anxiety on a daily basis they’d be doing better than not practicing them at all. Grounding skills will become easier and more natural when anxiety shows up if you are practicing them even when your anxiety is not at an all-time high. You could practice them multiple times per day and be doing even better. Practicing and implementing grounding skills when dealing with anxiety will become a coping skill that comes on automatically when anxiety starts to rise. It’s important to note practicing anxiety skills alone isn’t the only approach to anxiety management. Working with an anxiety therapist is recommended too.
Grounding tips to try from an Anxiety Therapist
There are many grounding skills you can implement and practice. It’s important that you find grounding skills that you enjoy and find helpful. Not all grounding skills will be the ones you like to use. Here are some of the grounding skills for anxiety to try.
Deep breathing
This is one of the most powerful ways to calm and soothe your nervous system when you are feeling anxious. Deep breathing will activate the body’s response to relaxation by slowing down your heart rate and increasing oxygen flow to the blood. You can practice deep breathing by finding a comfortable place to sit or lie down. Practice breathing in deeply through your nose for five seconds and holding for 5 and letting out a deep exhale for 5 seconds. You can practice this skill at any time such as at a job interview, a school presentation, or in a confrontation or conflict with a loved one. The more you practice deep breathing the sooner your brain will start to associate this as a way of coping when anxiety hits.
5 senses technique
There are different ways of doing this exercise. You essentially go through all five of your senses and notice 5 things. You would notice 5 things you see. 4 things you can touch or feel. 3 things you can hear. 2 things you smell. 1 thing you can taste. For people that are feeling extra activated, I recommend then focus on finding 5 of each. You might not be able to find 5 things you can smell or taste but it can draw your focus and attention to being really mindful. The purpose of this exercise is to help you ground yourself in the present moment. Anxiety is activated when you start thinking of future scenarios or thinking about the past. When you focus on and remain in the present moment it can decrease anxiety.
Safe Calm Place Visualization
This might be one of my favorite grounding skills but it doesn’t mean it has to be yours. I recommend doing this before you are activated and anxious. Come up with a place or experience you’ve had in the past that makes you feel calm and safe. If you don’t have a place you’ve been, you can imagine a place that you would like to go that you envision makes you feel calm, safe, and relaxed. You can look up photos of places so that you can have a visual in mind. Bring to mind this place and slow down your breathing. Notice how it makes your body feel. Focus on the pleasant sensations you feel. Notice the things you see, hear, smell, and feel. What’s the temperature like? Keep breathing in deeply. Give this place a name so that when you think of the name it can cue up a calming and relaxing response.
Anxiety therapy in Utah can help
The purpose of therapy for anxiety is to help you to understand your anxiety better. You can learn the things that trigger and increase your anxiety as well as how to cope with them. Anxiety is sometimes a symptom of something that happened in the past that you might not recognize as connected. Working with a therapist for anxiety can help you work through these areas. Working on your anxiety in a supportive and safe environment can help you feel comfortable addressing the areas of your life impacted by anxiety. An important part of healing is being able to have connection and support and anxiety therapy can help you get that.
Start working with a therapist for anxiety in Utah
You don’t have to keep dealing with anxiety all on your own. You can find relief from feeling anxious. Therapy for anxiety can help! This Utah Counseling Center has an therapist for anxiety specializing in anxiety therapy. To sign up for anxiety counseling follow the steps below:
Meet with an anxiety therapist
Begin working on your anxiety
Online Therapy in Utah
I know it can be hard to find time in your schedule to attend another appointment. It can also be scary to think about finding an office for your therapy appointment when you are feeling anxious. This is why I provide online therapy in Utah. It’s safe, effective, and can be done from the comfort of your own. It’s equally as effective and helpful as in-person therapy but is much more convenient.
Online counseling also means I can work with you wherever you are located in Utah. I work with clients in Cedar City, St. George, Provo, Heber City, Salt Lake City, Logan, and more.
Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy
Anxiety therapy isn’t the only counseling service provided at this Utah Counseling Clinic. Other mental health services provided by Maple Canyon Therapy include EMDR therapy, body image therapy, eating disorder therapy, binge eating disorder treatment, therapy for college students, and birth trauma therapy. Schedule a free phone consultation to see how I can help.
About the Author
Ashlee Hunt LCSW is an anxiety therapist and founder of Maple Canyon Therapy near Provo, Utah. She has a bachelor of science in psychology and a bachelor of science in family life and human development from Southern Utah University. Ashlee has a master’s degree in social work from Utah State University. She loves helping women learn to cope with anxiety by using techniques that focus on past experiences as well as effective coping skills. Ashlee believes that anxiety doesn’t have to ruin your life but you can learn to understand it and deal with it better