The 5‑4‑3‑2‑1 Grounding Technique: How to Calm Anxiety, PTSD, and Panic Naturally

***CAUTION: THIS POST MIGHT BE TRIGGERING TO ANYONE DIAGNOISED/UNDIAGNOISED OF MENTAL ILLNESS***

If you struggle with anxiety, derealization, PTSD or anything else that I’ve got, you and I both know how difficult it is to keep ourselves grounded.

When anxiety hits, it’s like our feet come off the floor and everything is almost unreal.

We can’t stop the shaking, the impulsive crying, and the hysterical panic of impending doom.

It’s hard and pulling ourselves down is even harder.

I wasn’t even aware of these sort of things until I had my mental breakdown on March 3 (which I thought was 5th but that’s when I was taken to the ER).

I wasn’t aware of the stressors. I wasn’t aware of how severe anxiety could be and I wasn’t aware that I could have PTSD.

I thought that was something only people in the military could get.

So, when my entire world came crashing down on me, and every time it comes crashing down on me, I resort to a technique called “The Grounding Technique.”

If you haven’t heard of it or don’t know it’s purpose, then don’t be alarmed, I’m here to answer a few of those questions and hopefully more.

Too many questions can also be a triggering factor when it comes to anxiety and such illnesses.

Before we go any further, I would just like to be upfront here.

I’m not a licensed therapist or psychiatrist and I don’t practice any of those fields, but I am a human going through these challenging circumstances and would like to be there for you in hopes to guide you.

This journey we are on can and will be unsteady at times, but that’s why knowing others are going through what I am going through gave me a glimmer of hope.

Especially those people who, at the clinic I was going to for my mental health, told me that they, too, we’re in my shoes and they’ve seen people get better.

There’s hope for us, my friend.

We don’t have to stay like this forever.

It’s not going to be a forever thing.

Only if we let it win and take us over, will we have lost.

It’s tough to fight an enemy when the enemy is you in the mirror.

But it’s not impossible to get better.

Turns out my husband felt this way the majority of his younger years and now everything they tell me to practice, he’s well versed in because he had to teach himself to do these things all his life.

That being said, I don’t want to mislead you and say there’s a quick fix, but doing this grounding technique in anything and everything that you do IS the QUICK FIX!

I’m going to share with you why in just a moment here, but before we get there, let me share something with you.

I used to do this Grounding Technique only when I was already amid the 20-to-30-minute window of my anxiety. (which I was told this is how long an episode lasts) so, it worked, but in that vicious window, it didn’t work that quickly.

There was still the tears, there was still a slight bit of anxiousness, and hysteria, but what it evolved to was tears of happiness.

I wasn’t crying because I was scared anymore… I was crying because I could touch the “Carpet.”

Carpet?

Yeah, odd, right? What does a carpet have to do with any of this?

Well, when I was in hysteria, all I did was cure up and yank at my clothes, trying to get out of myself, but when I started the Grounding Technique and my hands had to feel objects around me.

My hand reached down and touched the carpet beneath me… and I began to cry out, “I can feel the carpet!” I cried.

I was sooooo relieved I could feel things and that broke me from my paranoia that nothing was real.

I gripped onto my fuzzy carpet and outstretched my hand, pulling it in between my fingers and rubbing my bare palms against its texture.

I… could… feel…

When you start to become out of touch with everything around you, you start to wonder if anything even is real. Your mind starts to pull you in, keeping you safe within you, but all you want to do is get out of your own skin.

Practicing the Grounding Technique helps stimulate your mind with what’s actually real.

The carpet, the pen, your cat, you, it’s all real.

So, let’s talk about the Grounding Technique and let’s learn how to do it and why we should do it repeatedly and not just in the moment we need it most.

The Grounding Technique

So, the Grounding Technique is primarily used to help oneself become reconnected with their five senses and rooted back into themselves.

It consists of the five senses and practicing each in order to reconnect with awareness and your surroundings.

It goes like this 5-4-3-2-1.

With each familiarity bringing more and more back down to Earth and back into your own control.

Every move that you practice you must say out loud, and I presume it’s so that you can talk to yourself and acknowledge what you are doing and what you are in control of.

You state five things you see.

You state four things that you feel.

You state three things that you hear.

You state two things that you smell.

You state one thing that you taste.

Pretty simple, right?

You can say that, but getting someone who is in the heavy wave of those beginner 20-30 minutes, it can be hard to get them to start following directions or listening to reason.

In that moment, I know I feel vulnerable and like everyone around me is looking at me like I’m crazy. So… that doesn’t help… in the slightest.

This is why I recommend it being practiced every day and, in every way,

Let’s walk through these senses and how to ground yourself every moment of the day, so that you can better be in control of your anxiety wave and how you can lessen the heaviness it brings.

State 5 Things that You See

While you are going about your day, whether you are at work, with your children, at the gym, or even alone in your own room, stating 5 things that you see can be pretty funny at first (especially when you say them out loud in front of people) but you should remember, this is for you, not for them.

Don’t let what they think keep you from keeping yourself calm and in control.

While you are at work, if you don’t want to say these things out loud and are hoping not to be embarrassed or looked at like some weirdo, I got you. Just follow my instruction:

1.       Look at an object and take 2 to 3 seconds to really looking at it.

2.       Look at the color.

3.       Define the shape.

4.       What is it used for?

5.       What about it do you find fascinating?

Then once you’ve done that move onto the next. But before we do let me give you an example.

A Pen:

1.       I’m looking at the pen.

2.       The pen I am looking at is white and purple.

3.       It elongated and almost like a cylinder in some way.

4.       It’s used to write letters, poems, names, draw people.

5.       I find it cool how such a simple pen can create stories and images right from my mind.

All that I got from looking at one pen.

Weird how I really took a moment to appreciate an object that we use every day and sometimes mindlessly.

That’s why the Grounding Technique is so beautiful because it pulls us back into the mind of our childhood years when we were curious and everything including a box could entertain us!

You see we’ve become so out of touch with ourselves that if we aren’t excelling at something every second of the day, then we are convinced we’re doing nothing at all!

State 4 Things That You Feel

Once you’ve looked at five different objects and taken the moment to appreciate them, then let’s go right on to touch.

The majority of the time, we either have our phone in our hands, food, or a remote.

But do we ever feel that object? Do we even know what texture is anymore?

I don’t think so.

We’ve become less curious about how things feel and (because of the pandemic) we’ve become scared to touch anything.

However, we are humans! We need to feel, we need to touch things. It’s how we can tell if something is hot or cold, or hard and soft.

Let’s get in touch with an example, shall we?

We’ll use a mother and her child as an example.

I’m a mother and having high stress and levels of anxiety has really stolen me away from them. Especially since I don’t want them to see me this way.

It feels almost shameful to not have it all together as a mom… or a dad… but don’t beat yourself up too much about it…

Why you’re here reading this post shows and should prove to you that you will try everything in your power to not let this illness keep you from your children.

1.       Hold your child, and I mean hold them in your arms.

2.       Let your open hand stretch over their feet, hands, head.

3.       Feel their soft skin, their fuzzy, curly, straight hair. Allow the strands of hair to roll between your fingers.

4.       Let your fingers rub against their fingers and toes and look at them like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen them before in your life.

Go ahead and cry, Mom and Dad… That’s your baby. That’s your child and those tears you’re crying aren’t tears of sadness but of joy because they are here, and they are loved.

You, too, are loved. Remember that.

You have a community of people who are all going through what you are going through.

You are not and will never be alone in these hard times.

State 3 Thing that You Hear

This one you can do without a problem, but also with those headphones always in your ear or that rush of traffic making you feel overstimulated, how many times have you tried listening just to listen?

Not when you stop and hear chatter and police sirens involuntarily, but when you stop and try to hear things specifically.

With this example, we will use the gym.

Other than your own breathing and heart beating faster, lets slow down the pace of the treadmill and close our eyes for a sec (be sure to hold onto the rails, so that you don’t end up falling off like me)

1.       Take off your headphones and grip the rails and look around at where you are.

2.       Close your eyes and listen as you breathe deeply in and slowly out.

a.       Do you hear the clang of weights hitting the floor?

b.       Do you hear other people breathing alongside you?

c.       Do you hear the ac or ceiling fan blowing air around you?

d.       The mechanical gears of the treadmill turning.

e.       The chatter of other gym goers?

f.        What do you hear?

3.       Then open your eyes and listen as you notice where it’s coming from.

Almost surreal sometimes when you can actually pinpoint where the sound is coming from and how Intune you can become when you are in control of what stimulation and sound goes into your ears.

State 2 Things That You Smell

Glad we used the gym reference for hearing not smelling because man… what it can smell like in the gym when you get really connected to the sense of smell.

Please go ahead if you like, but I recommend against it.

Returning to topic, the next to last step is smell.

We all know what good food smells like, but when it comes to the table, or when it’s delivered to our front door or desk, yes, I’m gonna ask you, how many times do you actually smell each thing on your plate.

A taco is loaded with different ingredients and sometimes all we smell is… a “taco.”

We don’t smell the meat, the greens, the beans, or the rice separately, but they all have a separate smell to them. Thus the “taco” smell.

So, let’s use this example as you are about to eat food, but don’t eat it yet.

1.       Look at all the separate ingredients, familiarize yourself with who is around you, grab the taco and smell.

a.       Do you smell each ingredient?

b.       Can you separate the rice from the beans?

c.       Can you smell the tortilla and the avocado?

2.       Now, do one last thing before you bite. Take a deep breath and release, then hold the taco close to your nose and only using your nose take in a large whiff until you feel a small part in your brain light up as it reaches 100% inhalation.

State 1 Thing That You Taste

Then bite.

Chew.

Taste.

I know we’ve been told a million times by our parents not to play with our food but throw that out the window for now.

1.       Chew slowly, allow your taste buds and saliva to amplify. Makes this moment the first moment (even if it isn’t) that you’ve tasted this taco.

a.       Move it around in your mouth.

b.       Try to distinguish every single ingredient.

c.       Try to feel the mush of the beans, rice and avocado.

d.       The toughness of the meat

Now… we can both agree, this is the BEST tasting taco we’ve had in a long time.

In Conclusion

The Grounding Technique can be practiced at every time of the day and should be. We were children once and naturally this technique is how we navigated through the world and grew up learning how we did.

I’m sorry to say that some of us didn’t have the best childhood… and that’s one too many.

But as adults, we get to embrace that childhood and make it our own.

We can buy things now. We make money (I know it never feels like enough, but we’re out here trying)

Take back the moments we’ve lost or so we believe we’ve lost to anxiety.

It doesn’t have to be only in the moments that we need it to use it.

Grounding ourselves in this technique every day will only make us more aware, more in tune, and more appreciative of the things that we have, the people that we love, the time that we share.

The Grounding Technique is more than just a “quick fix”. It’s THE fix that we need in order to better become rooted in ourselves and to learn how to reconnect with that which we believed we lost.