Five sense grounding has been shown to be an effective mental health tool for the following:
Anxiety - Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder
Depersonalization/Derealization Disorder- feeling like a dissociated outside observer of our life and/or feeling dissociated from our surroundings
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Acute Stress Disorder
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Trichotillomania
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Intermittent Explosive Disorder
Substance Use Disorder
Relationship difficulties
Self harming behaviors
It is also frequently recommended for couples, parents, employees, executives, creative artists, athletes, and pretty much anyone looking for self-improvement or to improve overall performance.
I use it and recommend it all the time in my personal life and in my practice. If you are familiar with this technique and have used it in the past, I encourage you to start using it again. If you have never practiced this technique, please read on for the version that I practice for myself and with clients. Make sure to purposefully do each step and not just “go through the motions” of the exercise - the practice is only as effective as the attention and commitment you give it.
5-4-3-2-1 Five Sense Grounding:
This simple well known present moment technique has a broad spectrum of effectiveness. It can be practiced anytime and anywhere. You can choose to jump right in, it doesn’t require any mental preparation such as focused breathing or soul searching. This simplicity is what makes it so effective. You just ask and answer the following series of questions:
What are 5 things you can see right now? For example, right now I see a laptop, the color black, refection of a tree on the laptop screen, a keyboard, and wood flooring.
What are 4 things that you can hear? For example, I hear a propeller airplane, car tires on the road, a horn, a bird.
What are 3 things that you can feel? For example, I feel the cotton of my shirt on my skin, the smoothness of the keyboard keys under my fingertips, pressure of the soles of my feet making contact with the floor.
What are 2 things you can smell? I smell air coming through the window, I smell the faint smell of detergent on my shirt when I hold it up to my nose.
What is 1 thing you can taste? I brushed not too long ago so I taste some mint flavor.
Now end with a physical stretch. Let your arms stretch out fully and extend out from your body. Look at and notice your hands all the way to your finger tips as you stretch. Notice your fingertips and your outstretched arms, notice that you are stretching your body, and that you are here in your body, noticing what is around you as you purposefully make contact with the present moment.
Again, for those of you that have tried this technique or those similar to it in the past and it worked for a little while but then stopped, I encourage you to pick it up again and do more of it. It’s such a simple intervention that it is easy to forget about. Do so much of it that you think you’re doing too much of it. It would be nearly impossible to do so much 5 sense grounding that it damages your life. In fact, practicing this technique during times of low distress will support your ability to use it in times of high distress. The greater the practice the greater the ability to make contact with the present moment and increase our ability to manage and interrupt unhelpful patterns of mental struggle.
Clients have stated that this technique has changed their lives. It can be that effective at interrupting unhelpful mental cycles that keep us stuck. I’ve used it hundreds of times personally and cannot imagine my life without this skill.