✎Subscriber thread: Grounding strategies
How we're coping on a very big day
Hello my lovelies,
I just wanted to check in with you all today - it’s a hugely stressful day for those of you in the US. I know that many of you have worked so hard in the last weeks, and that many of you have a lot to lose. I wanted to send my love and empathy.
Days like this can easily drift into a blur of anxiety and distraction. In these moments, we tend to talk about cheering ourselves up, or taking our mind off matters. I don’t buy it. Deep, roaming worry is more powerful than that. It’s no so easily quelled. I try to focus on staying grounded instead - connecting my mind to my body, and my body to the ground on which it stands. Grounding is about staying in the here and now, rather than floating away.
I shared my ideas for staying grounded in this post last year, which you might find useful today. But I’d love to open up some space to share good ideas and mutual support. Tell me in the comments:
How are you coping today?
What’s a grounding strategy that you find useful?
Take lots of care. Get some fresh air. Breathe.
Katherine x
I will do a sort of grounding where I identify what is here right now. Whenever I get served up a plate of “What if’s,” I turn to simple things that help me not dissociate (and spiral). The ones I’ve been saying the last few days are:
There are walls around me in my house.
There’s food in my kitchen.
There are friends who listen to me.
There’s coconut milk creamer for my coffee.
My daughter is in her bed.
My dogs are playing in the mud.
For me, making it through a hard day is more about connecting with the neutrality around me rather than trying to coax my way to some concocted place of “happiness.” Because the reality is I’m smarter than “it’ll be OK” fluff. I know there’s so much on the line in today’s election. I am building bridges to neutrality and current, present moment safety.
A very hard day for all of us here in the US. An even harder day for those of us who experienced trauma at the hands of a man, and left us with little agency: T triggers every reminder of that trauma, ever fear, every somatic response my body can muster. And that’s before I even get in to the particulars of what this could mean for my wife and me. How will I ground myself: being outside. Being near a moving body of water. Breathing as deeply as I can. Being with the dog, who apparently has no idea what’s happening. Napping. Holding my wife’s hand. Reading poetry. Drawing, even though I’m a really shitty artist. 🙏🏻❤️