Grounding with Earth – Air – Water – Fire

Suggestions:

Find a quiet place where you can do these exercises without interruption. They will usually take twenty or thirty minutes to complete. It’s recommend that you work through the four elements, as they build on one another. At least initially, and until you are able to master all four, learn to use all four elements.

At some point you may find one or more of the elements are particularly helpful, in which case you may decide to focus on these rather than doing all four. If you are very anxious, you may find it beneficial to do the exercises when you get up in the morning, during the day whenever anxiety comes and before going to bed.

The sequence:

1. EARTH: GROUNDING, SAFETY in the PRESENT/REALITY...

Take a minute or two to “land”... to be where you are right now ... place both feet on the ground, feel the chair supporting you.... Look around & notice 3 new things ... What do you see... What do you hear? (Pay attention to being safe right where you are, in the present).

2. AIR : BREATHING for CENTERING ...

You can do your favourite breathing exercise here, or follow this one : breathe in through your nose as you count 7 seconds, then hold for 2 and then breathe out for 9 seconds through your mouth – adjusting the count to your breathing capacity. Take about a dozen deeper slower breaths like this where the count breathing out is slightly longer than the count breathing in.” (Focus your attention inwards to your centre).

3. Water : CALM & CONTROLLED – switch on the RELAXATION RESPONSE...

Do you have saliva in your mouth? Make more saliva....when we are anxious or stressed our mouth often dries because part of the stress emergency response is to shut of the digestive system. So when you start making saliva you switch on the digestive system again and the relaxation response. When you make saliva your mind can also optimally control your thoughts & your body).

(Focus on producing saliva & becoming calmer, focused & more in control ).

4-FIRE : LIGHT up the path of your IMAGINATION...

Bring up an image of your SAFE PLACE (or some other RESOURCE such as a memory when you felt good about yourself) – what do you feel & where do you feel it in your body? Strengthen the feelings/sensations with brief slow taps (left, right, left, right, etc.) one tap per second for as long as the positive feeling/sensation strengthens – stop when it ceases to strengthen or if it deteriorates) on the outside of your knees/thighs.

(Focus on the feelings of safety/calm/etc. in your body ).

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