[KKis]

How do you keep yourself "grounded" throughout the day?
Closing my eyes, feet on the floor, breathing calmly in & out, listening to all the sounds around me, smelling the air in the room, feeling the air, it is breezy? hot? What am I touching right now? This helps me.

What helps you??

[CANDC]

Hi KKis

One way is breathing and focusing on that rather than my fleeting mind.

Breathing exercise
If you are feeling very anxious or angry or just want to calm down, you can try a breathing exercise that takes the attention away from the trigger of anxiety to a simple tool of counting breaths.

Find a comfortable position seated or laying down. Begin to relax your breathing. Silently count 1 on the inhale, and two on the exhale. Then silently count 3 on the inhale and 4 on the exhale. Continue up to 10 or until you lose the count then return to one. No judgement. I sometimes end up at 18 then smile and return to 1. The idea is to focus on the breath and the counting and not get sucked into the anxiety or anger trigger. Also works to quiet the mind.

I have to watch what I eat because foods I eat can stabilize my moods or exaggerate them. A high protein low carb diet with snacks or meals every 3-4 hours will over time reduce my swings. I also avoid alcohol and recreational drugs because those can really increase depression.

Other lifestyle changes that help me are doing yoga, exercises, mindfulness, calm music, and being active on Psych Central.

What helps me is an imagery exercise where I imagine myself holding hands with my T (she agreed to it, and invited herself in) in my "safe space".

[Hellion]

grounded?.....seems like I am more at peace in space, not literal but I guess what i mean is I feel the most at peace when I am not fully here whether totally focused on some interest like music I like or Game of Thrones...also lately I've been getting pissed at my PTSD interfering with my reading....the book series game of thrones came from just might be my way back in. So things like that or when I am off in my own head thinking about things that aren't negative or just spacing out.

I have tried grounding excercises before and always find them overwhelming...I guess I have a weird brain.

[KKis]

Some good ideas, thank you.