Lived Experience Forum

[MDT]

hey froggy @frog

I sometimes find that a blanket hiatus from social media is good for my mental health when i feel bad. Did that on thursday and friday

[Former-Member]

@frog , following this as I have limited to no ways of grounding at the moment. The beach works for me but I don't often get there. 

I am sorry you are feeling overwhelmed 

[Appleblossom]

@frog 

I have to work hard at grounding and spend a fair bit of time at it, hence no fulltime job.  So I have to hand it to you.  One thing I heard and have done a few times on the train when triggered is to have hand cream in my bag and quietly put it on and rub it in to bring me to physical reality rather than fear and thoughts.

You get so much done.

Hugs

[Valentine]

Hi @frog 

I'm just getting over anger for some reason it decided to show up this week.  Then a job was offered but it had too many what if's to getting set up.  Went to gym this morning and it was pretty barren I guess the news has put peeps off.  Although I was watching how close others came by me.  So rain and tweeting today might watch netflix I really want to take pics of trees and some ducks. 

[Faith-and-Hope]

Hugs @frog  ..... overwhelm is sucky.

I use a nice smelling hand cream as a circuit-breaker ..... it's something that brings  your sense of smell into sharp focus which provides an immediate distraction to compete with the swirling thoughts and help ground them ..... as well as being a self-care action, that works like a hug.

[Shaz51]

overwhelm is sucky. my friend @frog 

I have had that kinda week too xoxo

sending you lots of hugs and sitting with you 

[Mazarita]

Hi @frog, after my several months away from the forum. Thanks for the tag. Good to hear you are still meditating. I am too, in my ad hoc way, usually at some random moment or few every day. I sometimes do it just before sleep, to relax my body and try to settle my often anxious breathing and the general tension in my body.

The kind of meditation I am mostly talking about is breathing exercises, first by drawing my mind's attention to my breathing. Then when my breathing naturally slows down in that simple process, I start counting out my in and out breaths to whatever number feels comfortable for the time. I usually breath out for longer than I breathe in. I have learned that this is effective for slowing down and deepening breathing. This is a grounding for me, by bringing my hyperactive mind more into awareness and connection with my physical body.

Aside from that, every day I usually do some stretching of my arms over my head for a kind of 'cat-stretch' of the length of my body, especially spine. Again, just when I think of it or when it happens naturally, as it happens with cats. I find that stretch also opens out my chest so that I am then able to breathe better and get more oxygen into my lungs. Again grounding.

I am often making specific efforts to notice the world around me as much as I can, when I'm travelling by bus or as a car passenger (I don't drive any more). More than anything I am drawing my attention out of my internal monologue, to the trees, birds and nature in general that live with us even in urban areas.

Finally, I tune into the birds I am hearing, especially in my home environment, where windows and doors are often open. This listening often happens naturally now at dusk and dawn, without trying. Other times I need to remember to focus my attention there. Sometimes I think that listening to nature like this is more grounding and peaceful than anything.

Get what you are saying about feeling overwhelmed. I experienced that in my personal life especially in the very stressful second half of last year. Now of course the world is anxious about health and other issues of being human and one part of a changing earth. Trying to hold on to a calm and rational mental perspective on it all. I guess that's grounding too.

I'm also hoping to go for a beach walk before too long, then more after that.

Your approach of giving love to the dog, the garden and going for walks is great.

Hi to everyone in this discussion as well.

[Teej]

Hey @frog , 

thanks for the tag. So sorry your work world has been upended along with our everyday life as we know it. 
When I'm aware of my headspace I often do the rainbow walk to ground. You could adapt it to what ever works for you. It's basically spending a few minutes finding objects the colours of the rainbow but to cheat I use red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple (instead of indigo and violet). When I learned it mindfulness class we used a picture on a screen and sat silently finding as many objects we could going through the rainbow until you were out. Sometimes that was going through the rainbow once and then finding a different picture or sometimes we'd go through the rainbow a few times on the same pic. You can do it as a physical walk, I've done it driving. 
Scent is another go to for me too. I have a roll on of a calming scent in my handbag. 
Last mindfulness trick I found easy was using your breath. I can't do that easily without something to do. One way we did was to hold your hand up with fingers open and then with index finger of your other hand trace around your fingers breathing in when tracing up and out when tracing down. Another way to concentrate on breath was to get a piece of paper and a pen and draw a shape on the paper. A square is easy and breather in or out. We did it with eyes shut because it's not about the shape but regulating breathing. The infinite sign was always calming too, breathe in for the first circle part and then out for the other. Do that activity for a couple of minutes helps. 
I hope things go ok. Thinking of you 💜😊

[frog]

Thank you everyone for your responses and some really helpful ideas.

One thing I can definitely work on is being more in tune with my senses to ground myself.

Hope all of you had some good in your day.

@Teej @Mazarita @Shaz51 @Faith-and-Hope @Valentine @MDT @Former-Member @Appleblossom @eth 

[eth]

How are you going @frog   I hope you're feeling a bit better and managed some self-care stuff that helped.