Grounding Tools
When life feels like too much—whether it’s stress from the news, anxiety about the future, or emotional overload—grounding techniques can help bring you back to center.
Grounding skills are simple, evidence-based tools that anchor you in the present moment. They work by calming your nervous system and shifting your focus away from distressing thoughts and toward what’s real and tangible right now.
What Are Grounding Techniques?
Grounding techniques are helpful when you feel:
Anxious or panicky
Disconnected or numb
Overwhelmed by racing thoughts
Triggered by painful memories
They help you get out of your head and back into your body, where safety and calm can begin to return.
Want a Free Printable Guide?
Download my Grounding Practices for Overwhelming Times handout here for easy-to-use techniques you can keep nearby.
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And if you’re feeling emotionally flooded or dealing with anxiety, trauma, or burnout—therapy can help. Contact me here to learn more about individual support or workshops.
When current events are Personal: Coping With Collective Trauma & Identity-based pain
For many of, global events aren’t just abstract headlines — they hit close to home. If you are part of a group directly impacted by injustice, violence, or systemic harm, it can feel like the whole world is triggering your story.
This is collective trauma. And it is real.
Here’s how to care for yourself when the pain feels personal:
1. Name the layers. What you’re feeling might be more than sadness — it might be grief, fear, ancestral trauma, or identity-based pain. Name it to meet it.
2. Find your people. Community care is essential. Talk to others who share your experience. Seek affinity spaces where you don’t have to explain your pain.
3. Let yourself feel — then ground. Avoiding feelings doesn’t make them go away. Let yourself cry, rage, or mourn. Then use grounding tools (like breath, touch, or movement) to help your body come back to safety.
4. Take action, but pace yourself. Advocacy, donations, and community support matter. But burnout helps no one. Honor your capacity and take breaks as needed.
Healing from collective trauma requires community, compassion, and nervous system safety. You’re not alone.If you need a place to process, ground, and begin healing, I’m here. Feel free to reach out.
Staying Informed Without Becoming Consumed: Managing News Overload
Doomscrolling
One of Oxford English Dictionary's words of the year in 2020
It’s easy to feel like keeping up with the news is a moral obligation. But what happens when current event consumption becomes a source of chronic distress? Many of my friends, family, and clients have been asking how to balance being informed with managing the emotional impact of the realities of the world.
The balance tips when we enter “dooomscrolling” territory. What is doomscrolling? Excessive consuming of negative news and information online that leads to feelings of anxiety, sadness and anger.
Doomscrolling activates the sympathetic nervous system. While you may physically be located in a safe space, the stress response system of your brain can be activated by an ongoing barrage of news content. Your brain and your body feel unsafe and your fight-flight-freeze responses can be activated changing your heart rate, blood pressure, muscle tension and making it more difficult to concentrate or sleep.
Doomscrolling can lead to vicarious trauma. Research and lived experiences have demonstrated that the ongoing exposure to violence, suffering, and injustice can leave lasting psychological effects to those observing those acts. Particularly with uncensored and raw footage on social media, individuals can experience symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.
Here’s how to engage more mindfully:
1. Set time boundaries. Designate specific windows of time (e.g., 15 minutes in the morning) to check reliable news sources. Avoid late-night consumption, because that heightened stress and anxiety can interfere with sleep.
2. Choose your sources. Follow trusted journalism. Avoid clickbait headlines and overly graphic content unless it’s essential to your awareness or action.
3. Notice your body. Pause when reading headlines. Are your shoulders tense? Is your breath shallow? That’s your cue to step away and regulate.
4. Take breaks and return to your life. Being informed is important, but so is being well. Seek moments of beauty, connection, and calm. That’s not ignorance — it’s resilience.
Remember: You are not obligated to consume every crisis in real-time in order to care. If you're finding it difficult to manage your relationship with the news — feeling anxious, numb, or stuck in a loop of doomscrolling — that’s a sign your nervous system is asking for support.
I offer therapy for vicarious trauma and emotional burnout, and I’d be honored to help you find steadier ground. Reach out if you’d like to talk more.