Grounding & Orienting Practice For Anxiety & Panic

Hello,

My name is Catherine Cook-Coutone.

This meditation was written to help you address anxiety and panic as it might show up in your life.

It is an adapted form of a grounding and orienting protocol.

My goal for you right now is to practice this empowering grounding and orienting protocol so that if you need it,

Or perhaps it might be when you need it,

You will be able to connect back to your practice as a resource,

As a way to help you de-escalate and center yourself as the anxiety or panic passes.

So before you get started,

Make sure that you're sitting in a place where you can find a comfortable position and that we can create a grounded and supported seat for you.

And then allow your mind to settle and open up into listening the inquiry into the possibility of this meditation for you.

And see if you can let go of a need for this meditation or this moment to be any certain way.

It's a practice,

Just a practice.

And simply here,

Coming to your breath,

You might even notice your breath as you breathe in,

Your breath as you breathe out.

Simply taking a few moments to breathe here.

Now see if you can recall a recent time when you felt anxious or maybe even a bit panicked.

Bring that to mind.

Maybe it's a narrative,

Maybe it's a picture in your mind.

And bring that to your awareness.

And then see if you can remember a bit of what it felt like.

So recall maybe the sensations in your body.

Perhaps you had a muscle engagement in the hips and shoulders,

Maybe your back.

Your arms,

Maybe your hands were clenched or engaged.

Maybe you remember your jaw being clenched.

Maybe you remember your breath changing or your heart beating faster.

You might have noticed maybe a shift in your body.

Maybe you got hotter,

Maybe you felt sweaty.

Your palms,

Your forehead,

Your body.

I'm trying to remember here what were the kind of sensations and experiences that came with this anxiety.

And then what were your thoughts like?

Sometimes they lean toward worries or anxieties.

In both anxiety and panic there can be a bit of this leaning into what ifs and what might happen and getting prepared to handle something.

And see what you remember about your thoughts.

And no pressure here.

We're just trying to bring to mind a bit of what it feels like to be anxious and a little bit panicked.

Now in order to help your system,

Your physical body,

Your emotional self,

Your thinking self and regulator calm in these moments,

It can be helpful to engage this grounding and orienting protocol.

So let's practice it.

First,

Bring your awareness to your feet.

Notice your feet on the ground,

In your shoes.

Perhaps you have stockings or socks on.

Notice that.

Maybe you don't,

Notice that.

And as you notice,

Begin to press your feet intentionally into the floor or the earth below you.

Really pressing down.

Yeah.

And then here you can add a wiggling of your toes to really bring your awareness to your feet.

And you might add the thought,

I am pressing my feet into the floor.

I am wiggling my toes.

And then take a deep breath in and an extended exhale.

And one more deep breath in and an extended exhale.

Okay.

And now,

With your feet grounded,

Press your sitting bones into your chair or cushion or bench,

Whatever you're sitting upon.

You might gently rock from side to side,

Noticing a connection with each of your sitting bones to the supporting structure that's underneath you.

Yeah.

Finding your center,

Press both sitting bones into the support below you.

And then feet to the floor,

Sitting bones pressing down,

Engage your core and lift up through your chest,

Through the crown of your head.

Yeah,

There's a downward pressing and grounding and then this connection with your own body lifting you up,

Straightening all right through the spine to the crown of your head.

Yeah.

And then soften your shoulders,

Maybe soften your jaw and maybe even soften through your eyes.

You might take a breath and add another thought like my feet are grounded.

My body is well supported and my shoulders and my jaw and my eyes are a bit softer.

And with your feet grounded and your body well supported,

Gently open your eyes if they were closed.

If your gaze was softened,

Lift your gaze and start to look around where you are.

Maybe it's a room,

Maybe you're outside.

Yeah,

Looking around.

And here I want you to name five things that you can see and being really clear about it.

Like maybe one,

A painting,

Two,

A chair,

Three,

A desk.

So naming,

Numbering,

Noting exactly what you see right here,

Right now.

Five things,

Five things that you can see.

Notice,

Number and name those things and breathe.

Now with your feet grounded and your body well supported,

I want you to listen.

Consider listening.

Listen for four things you can hear.

Maybe the sounds in the room or sounds outside.

As I'm sitting here,

I can hear the building,

The building's walls,

The little cracking in the walls.

So maybe you hear the actual building you're in or the wind.

So take a moment here.

You're going to notice,

Number and name four things that you can hear.

One,

Two,

Three and four.

Go ahead.

Four things that you can hear.

Breathe and notice.

Now,

With your feet grounded and your body well supported,

Bring your awareness to three things that you can feel.

Maybe one is the clothing on your body and two is the earth beneath you and three is your breath.

Maybe,

Take a moment and consider three things in the right here and the right now that you can feel.

Breathe,

Notice,

Number and label.

Now,

With your feet grounded and your body well supported,

Bring your awareness to two things you can smell.

Sometimes this one's a bit harder.

Maybe you notice scents in the room.

Maybe something on your clothes.

Maybe something from a window.

Maybe lotion that you have put on your hands.

Right here and right now,

Name two things you can smell.

That's where the pattern would be.

I'm going to notice.

I'm going to number.

I'm going to name two things that I can smell.

Breathing here and noticing.

Last,

With your feet grounded and your body well supported,

Say one thing that you know for sure to be true.

Perhaps it's that you and this moment are worth the effort.

Perhaps it's that you are thankful for your breath.

It could be as simple as breathing in,

I know I am breathing in and breathing out,

I know I am breathing out.

What is important is that this thought,

This knowing supports your presence in this moment and your grounded and supported body.

That this thought,

This knowing supports you being right here and right now,

Present and embodied.

Consider what is one thing right now that I know to be true.

It's okay if it's just the breath.

We start there.

Perhaps it's something else.

What do you know to be true?

One thing.

Breathe here and say to yourself,

There's one thing right here and right now that I know to be true that supports me in being grounded and present and here.

Breathe here and consider your one thing.

And so you have completed the grounding and orienting protocol.

We moved from connecting the feet to the earth,

The sitting bones to whatever is supporting you,

To the breath and to five things you could see,

Four things you could hear,

Three things you could feel,

Two things you could smell and one thing that you know for sure to be true right here and right now.

Take a few moments here and allow the meditation to settle.

Begin to deepen and lengthen your breaths,

Making sure you're maintaining your connection with your sitting bones.

You might even add a noticing that when you're breathing in,

I am breathing in and I'm breathing out,

I am breathing out.

You might want to even take a few moments just breathing here and after the meditation's over.

Considering what the meditation means to you,

Possibly for you,

You may even want to journal about this meditation and what you might like to notice or consider about it.

Thank yourself for taking a few moments to listen,

To wonder and to center and I thank you so much for listening.