Do you ever feel like your emotions are running the show? When emotions hit like a tidal wave, grounding techniques are your life raft. Learn three strategies to help you detach from the feelings and regain control.
In This Episode:
- 01:13 – Film Recommendations: Running on Empty and Defending Your Life
- 04:22 – Road Trip to Colorado: Coffin Races and Granola Recipe
- 07:51 – Grounding Exercises: Support Healing for the Body
- 11:09 – Mental Grounding – Finding Something Else for Your Brain to Do
- 13:27 – Physical Grounding – Focus on Physical Sensations Instead of Emotions
- 15:30 – Soothing Grounding – Focus on Things that are Uplifting and Inspiring
- 16:45 – Keys to Succeeding in Grounding
- 17:58 – Discussion about Grounding – Follow Your Bliss and Make an Effort
- 21:28 – “Brownie Mary” Hero to Terminally Ill Cancer and AIDS Patients for Her Marijuana Brownies
- 27:48 – Outro
What Are Grounding Techniques?
Grounding techniques are quick, discreet tools that help you steady your mind, ease the intensity, and stay present…even in the middle of panic, grief, anger, and emotional pain.
Grounding Techniques can help you anchor in the present, calm the storm, and take back control. Whether it’s anxiety, grief, anger, or overwhelming memories, grounding gives your brain and body a way to step back from the edge so you can breathe, think clearly, and move forward. Think of them as emotional ‘life hacks’ that you can do anywhere, with no one being the wiser. Simple, powerful, and portable—you can do them anytime, anywhere.
How Can I Use Grounding Strategies?
We discuss three strategies to target the three areas that trauma can affect us: our mind, our body, and our spirit.
- Mental Grounding helps our brain focus on other tasks rather than the troubling emotion
- Physical Grounding focuses on physical sensations, breathing and moving
- Soothing Grounding focuses on things that are uplifting and inspiring
We also teach you about ways to practice and use these strategies so they are the most successful when you need them.
We have talked about mindfulness in our past episodes, how is it different from grounding?
Mindfulness is a broad practice of present-moment awareness with non-judgment, while grounding is a specific, often short-term, technique to bring oneself back to the present when feeling overwhelmed, providing a sense of safety and stability. You can think of grounding as a type of mindfulness exercise, but mindfulness is a broader lifestyle or mental state, not just an emergency technique for anxiety.
Related Episodes:
- Finding Breath After the Break: Mindfulness in the Midst of Grief
- S6E9: Finding Your Breath in the Midst of Grief
- S3E37: What Can a Mindfulness Practice Offer You?
- S6E6: Chemo Rage – Learn How Treatment Affects Your Brain, and Ways to Harness the Emotional Energy
- S4E28: Healing the Broken Pieces – Applying the Art of Kintsugi to Grief
- S4E18: How to Exorcise Depression and Anxiety with Exercise
- S6E23: If You Can’t, Then You Must. How to Transform Grief – with Phil Cohen
References:
- 10 Creepy Real Stories from Colorado – Uncover Colorado
- Mary Jane Rathbun, The Marijuana Activist Known As ‘Brownie Mary’
- The 11 iconic foods Colorado is known for | outtherecolorado.com
- 13 Grounding Techniques To Help Calm Anxiety
Resources
- Emma Crawford Coffin Races & Festival | Manitou Springs, CO
- Emma Crawford Coffin Races & Festival – Manitou Springs, CO | 2025 – Uncover Colorado
- Grounding Exercises all in one Place: Grounding Techniques | Article | Therapist Aid
- 13 Grounding Techniques To Help Calm Anxiety
- What is Trauma? | Worksheet | Therapist Aid
- Grounding Exercise: Guided audio activity | Interactive | Therapist Aidcs2—grounding.pdf
Road Trip to Colorado: Coffin Races and Granola Recipe
This week we travel to Colorado – Manitou Springs, at the base of Pike’s Peak – to be exact. There we learn about a story of an early resident, her interesting burial, and the fun tradition honoring it. And while we’re hiking in Colorado, you’re bound to get an appetite, so here’s recipe for Granola from Rocky Mountain Cooking.
Brownie Marie
In our third segment, Charlie tells us about Mary Jane Rathbun, the Marijuana Activist known as “Brownie Marie.” Rathbun had noticed that the marijuana helped AIDS patients and cancer patients with side effects like pain and nausea, and she baked a large amount of brownies to ease their suffering.
Movie Recommendations
Looking for a movie or two this week? Marianne and Charlie mentioned a couple of movies in this podcast.
https://blog.feedspot.com/palliative_care_podcasts/
Everyone Dies: and yes, it is normal!
Everyone Dies (and yes, it is normal) is a story about a young boy named Jax who finds something special on the beach where he and his grandpa Pops are enjoying a wonderful day. Pops helps Jax understand that death is a normal part of life. This book provides an age appropriate, non-scary, comfortable way to introduce the important topic of mortality to a preschool child. Its simple explanation will last a lifetime. Autographed copies for sale at: www.everyonediesthebook.com. Also available at Amazon
Mourning Jewelry
We offer a way to memorialize your loved one or treasured pet with a piece of handmade jewelry. When people comment on it and the wearer can say for example “I received this when my mother died” which opens the conversation about this loss. All our jewelry is made with semi-precious stones and beads, vintage beads, and pearls. You can choose between earrings or bracelets and the color family. Learn More
