Grounding Techniques

[Sweet_E]

Favorite yoga poses for grounding: Crocodile, child's pose.
Alternate nostril breathing or just deep breaths
Stand in a power pose, feel my feet strong against the earth, my hands on my hips, straight spine, etc.
Place on hand over the other over my heart. Feel nurturing energy enter my heart as I breath deeply.
Take a sniff of a favorite essential oil. There is one called Panic Button that I like, or lavender.
If I'm somewhere where I can't be heard, I sometimes sing - usually made up songs, at a tone that feels right. Making sound is supposed to help move energy.

Thank you for starting this thread. This was a good reminder for myself to write these out.

 

[Tornadic Thoughts]

Ooo . . . what kinds of high energy clean foods???

More plant-based whole food stuff vs. animal products and/or highly processed often artificial food-like substances. :)

I try to have a garden salad of some sort on hand most all of the time, try to keep my favorite fresh veggies and fruits already washed and prepped into easy "fast food" portions so I can grab and go, keep some beans handy, keep my favorite frozen veggies and fruits on hand for convenience in quickly steaming them or making smoothies and nice cream, make my own sweet stuff like stuffed dates, sweet potato or black bean brownies, frozen banana nice cream, chickpea blondies with chocolate chips, etc., keep walnuts on hand to make my favorite taco "meat" substitute, make my own "greatorade" when I feel a need to restore electrolytes, blend my own herbal infusions and sun "teas" instead of caffeinated teas, keep homemade soups and other goodies in the freezer for convenience, and strive to learn as best I can ahead of time what a restaurant/other establishment/event/gathering has to offer that's vegan friendly so I can decline an invitation if need be, or simply know to take my own vittles to more comfortably and healthily join the crowd.

Foraging for the wild things is a favorite too, like wild plantains, stinging nettle, red clover, dandelions, autumn olives, rose hips, etc., etc. I add those types of things to salads, teas, soups, infusions, and juices, etc.. The less involvement necessary by man to enable its existence, the higher the energy it contains, from my experience.

I tend to travel everywhere with my small cooler packed with a few of my favorites to tide me over while I'm out and about, and to share if/when the opportunity presents itself. If restaurants don't serve anything I like to drink, I just order a cup of hot water with lemon in it. Once in a while I still consume gluten, like for example when I really want a pizza delivered (pizza without cheese is surprisingly tasty!!), but the only one close enough to deliver doesn't offer g/f crust, so I just deal with the side effects. There are also times in restaurants I'm quite certain I ingested at least a small amount of animal products, simply because they don't prepare the vegan options in a separate space. But I pay for it later, for sure, via inflammation, feeling old pains resurface, bloating, gas, belching, heartburn, and/or overall feelings of blah-ness. LOL Many of the bodily reactions that I used to think meant compliments to the chef. Hahahahahahaha!!!!

 

[ladee]

@cancerous2you ..you can do breathing exercises until you calm down enough to do something else you find soothing.
Sometimes we have to experiment and maybe do combos.
I feel getting a new T is going to help a lot. Having a lot of free floating anxiety and not having a place you trust to lay it down contributes to having trouble getting focused.
Going to PM you and not hijack this awesome thread.

 

[Sweet_E]

Foraging for the wild things is a favorite too,

That's so cool! I would love to have a perennial food garden or a food forest someday. Have you ever heard of those? There's also this concept of lasagne gardening which seems really easy. There are other more common names for it but the terms are slipping my mind. I have not scoped out any ideal places for foraging yet where I live. You have to be careful of the environment where you harvest. For now, we have a share in a local biodynamic farm CSA.

Hope I don't step on toes here, and not trying to start a debate - just express where I am on my journey - but I feel like there are options for eating meat cleanly too. We bought a quarter of a cow share from a local farm that pastures their animals and raises them in a natural environment and doesn't feed them things they shouldn't eat and doesn't confine them. I also have a health food store that carefully sources their meats, as well as a great farmer's market. I'm a very intuitive eater and it feels different when I eat tacos, for example, using ground beef from our cow share versus ground beef from the standard grocery store, using all of the same other ingredients. And I crave ground beef all of the time. I think there is something in it that my body wants. I get cravings for veggies too - cauliflower and avocado are big ones. We also have a really good raw vegan restaurant in town that uses really high quality ingredients. I get cravings for their one dish that is made with sweet potatoes, beans, and red cabbage. I would have never thought that combo would taste good but I love it! I always felt like a fraud when I would go to the vegan place, because I eat meat and I know they are serious vegans working there. So one day I literally *confessed* to them that "I'm a meat-eater!" ha ha. They were really sweet and judgmental and told me "every meal counts." On the other hand, I know people who are very militant about their own food ethics and are jerks about it. Food is a very sensitive topic - like religion.

Anyway, I love your food lifestyle! Thanks for sharing!

 

[holdenmonty]

I usually look around for things that are different then the experience I'm trying to ground myself from. Since I'm no longer active duty military clothing helps a lot because I look down and look at what I'm wearing and focus on the fact that I'm not wearing my uniform or boots and then look around for more things that are different.

 

[Muttly]

I think it depends a bit on why I need grounding. (Sorry, sleep deprived so not articulating well). I have body memory/flashbacks and if I'm dealing with that, how I ground is going to be very different than if I need to ground because I'm emotionally flooded.

My critters are a great way to ground, except sometimes, when it's body memories.
music can really help me
drawing can help (depends on who is out)
also my T introduced me to tapping (emdr type stuff) which is sort of amazing in how it helps. she actually loaned me her old, beat up theratapper since she was buying a new one too.