When we have experienced trauma, our bodies can feel like unsafe places. We can become easily aroused, unsettled and panicked, this has been our bodies way of protecting us and trying to keep us safe. We are no longer in danger now, but the body and mind have spent so long in this trauma response that it needs to learn that it is not needed anymore and that you are now safe.
Grounding is a really good technique to return us to ourselves and our immediate environment. When we respond from trauma we are responding from the past. Grounding ourselves in our current environment is a good way of reminding ourselves that we are in the here and now and not in the been and gone. The more we practice grounding the quicker will be able to travel from the past back into the safety of the present.
In order to orientate yourself into the present when aroused name:
Five things you can see
Four things you can hear
Three things you can touch
Two things you can smell
One thing you can taste
Make yourself a calming box/bag that include things that you like to look at, touch, taste, smell and hear that will help ground you in times of need.
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