#grounding tips

I've been seeing a few posts around here on people sharing some of the things they do to ground themselves when dissociation hits the hardest and some of them help me a lot! So I decided to write here some of my personal tips that sometimes help!

• Paint your nails with colours! - sometimes when i lose my grounding so bad, i have a really hard time on recognizing my hands. painting them whatever colour i have available at the time helps me to focus on something when i look at my hands. i can focus on the colours and try to remember carefully the time when i painted them.

• listening to familiar music with headphones. - i usually choose a song i know every word of so i can get a sense of familiarity that keeps me grounded. it also helps to quiet down my thoughts that keep spirilling.

• if i have someone around that i trust, i ask them to hug me tightly or squeeze my hand strongly. this helps to acknowledge that my body feels things, therefore it might be real.

• really hot or really cold showers. again, body feeling things

• jumping jacks or riding a bike. exercices help me focus on things outside of my mind and also tiredness makes the body feels more intense. feeling intense always helps to make me feel slightly more present.

• coffee. whenever i have an important test or anything that i have to put my mind on and can't zone out, i always consume a good amount of coffee before. it helps me focus on what i absolutely need to do.

Age old ask, but felt like answering.

Most of our system struggles immensely with this nearly constantly through all parts. I wouldn't really say any part of us really are ever grounded in life or in the body well - with myself and Aderis being the two that are the closest for the better or worse.

For us, a lot of changing out appearance can help a lot as well. It is a bit of a form of self autonomy and body autonomy and helps I guess feel as though we have some connection to the body more. For me, one of the things that helps me the most is going to the gym and doing different sorts of MMA shit. The body feed back I get from it, plus visible changes that are the result of my actions has helped me feel a lot more comfortable in the body. I'd argue it is honestly probably one of the largest things that helped me. That's coming from a part with really bad gender dysphoria and body dysmorphia.

Feeling the body tired and to see your actions affect the body is really helpful and having picked up a casual level of body building / MMA has helped a lot with that in a healthier direction. It does become a bit risky on our tendencies towards OCD behaviors spreading worse into eating / body, but it has been a massive net positive.

I know Riku and Lucille benefit greatly from going on walks / bikes and just paying attention to the environment around them as a grounding thing. Aderis takes bathes / goes into a hot tub if it is accessible as her grounding thing.

Though all of us like to dress up when we can. Lucille, Riku, and I pretty much share a wardrobe so we aren't dressing differently usually (save for certain combinations are more common to one part than the other) and Aderis is the only one with a drastically different style.

Really, our system could work a lot more on being grounded, but among other issues we have to work through, grounding is a bit on the back burner. Riku a while ago realized they / the system are grounded at most one or two days a month at a point where they were focusing on trying to work on it.

But I guess those are some of the grouding-esque self care our system does a bit? Some good tea can help some as well.

Oh and Riku does well with cuddling and having pressure on them; the pressure being more of a crisis coping mechanism than a general though.

chewing on ice or gum

listening to music (note: if you’re trying to prevent a switch from happening, make sure it’s not music that will trigger someone else to come out!)

petting your pets

working on a task you find simple and soothing, like making a bracelet or going for a walk!

drinking something warm

taking a cold shower

calling someone you trust 

counting something, like how many beads are in a jar or how many pens are on a table

planning out your week

there are so many more grounding techniques, feel free to send in an ask if you’d like to hear more!

Here are some super easy grounding methods : 

Drink some strong herbal tea.

Eat some raw, organic fruits and veggies.

Take a long bath with some bath salts, herbs and oils.

Carry a grounding crystal on you, cleanse it beforehand.

Walk barefoot in the garden or at the local park.

Bury your feet in the ground and meditate.

Drum or dance, anything with good rhythm.

Practice yoga or tai chi.

Do any of these when you’re feeling drained.

I've been seeing a few posts around here on people sharing some of the things they do to ground themselves when dissociation hits the hardest and some of them help me a lot! So I decided to write here some of my personal tips that sometimes help!

• Paint your nails with colours! - sometimes when i lose my grounding so bad, i have a really hard time on recognizing my hands. painting them whatever colour i have available at the time helps me to focus on something when i look at my hands. i can focus on the colours and try to remember carefully the time when i painted them.

• listening to familiar music with headphones. - i usually choose a song i know every word of so i can get a sense of familiarity that keeps me grounded. it also helps to quiet down my thoughts that keep spirilling.

• if i have someone around that i trust, i ask them to hug me tightly or squeeze my hand strongly. this helps to acknowledge that my body feels things, therefore it might be real.

• really hot or really cold showers. again, body feeling things

• jumping jacks or riding a bike. exercices help me focus on things outside of my mind and also tiredness makes the body feels more intense. feeling intense always helps to make me feel slightly more present.

• coffee. whenever i have an important test or anything that i have to put my mind on and can't zone out, i always consume a good amount of coffee before. it helps me focus on what i absolutely need to do.