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Are you or your child feeling stressed or overwhelmed? On Our Sleeves Clinical Director, Ariana Hoet, PhD shows us that through Grounding Meditation, you can use your five senses to get rid of negative thoughts and feelings. Learn new ways to really enjoy the now.
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Hi everyone, it’s Dr. Ariana Hoet with On Our Sleeves. Today we’re going to talk about
meditation and mindfulness. Meditation goes back thousands of years and while it started in India, it’s gone around the whole globe because it can be really helpful for calming ourselves down when we’re feeling stress or overwhelmed and what’s cool about it is that it can also be helpful in helping us enjoy the positive moments in life. Even more it helps us be present in the moment.
So there are many kinds of meditation and mindfulness skills but today we’re going to talk about grounding meditation. So what that means is we bring ourselves into the present moment. So sometimes we’re thinking a lot, we’re in the future, we’re time traveling thinking about all the things that we have to do and worrying about what’s coming up. We’re thinking about the past and ‘what I should have done’ or ‘maybe that mistake I made’ and we’re missing out on what’s going on now.
So, grounding meditation is taking yourself out of your head and noticing everything going on around you and in your body. Anyone can practice this, adults or kids, and you can do it anywhere, anytime. So you can be sitting, you can lay down, you can do it in the middle of whatever activity you’re doing. How it works is that I want you to think about noticing everything around, you using all of your senses. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you feel? Maybe what you smell or taste if you’re in the middle of eating something or drinking something.
So, one strategy that sometimes gets used in therapy is that we ask people to notice five things that they can see; your colors or people or what’s going on in the sky. Four things that you hear, three things that you can touch and two things you can smell, and one that you can taste. You can also bring your focus back to yourself. After you’ve noticed your surroundings, notice your body. Like right now, I can tell that my back is touching the chair. I know where my legs are touching the chair. I can feel my arms. I can feel my feet grounding on the floor and almost like i have roots going into the earth. That’s what’s grounding you into this moment, really feeling your body in the surroundings that you just paid attention to. So think about it after you do all of that, all of a sudden you’re no longer stuck in those negative thoughts and now you’re back in this moment and really enjoying the now.
Meditation and mindfulness can be really hard, so I want you to practice it every day. Make it a habit for you and your kids. We have more tips on how to make habits for your family. Click on the link below for more. Think about setting yourself a reminder, making it a part of your routine or schedule. You can do it at the start of the day to start off your day in that way, you can do it at the end of the day to wind down and help you sleep better. Think about setting up rewards so that if you’re successful, you can reward yourself and make it more fun. Thank you for joining us today! Don’t forget to like and subscribe and I hope I can see you soon.
