5-4-3-2-1 Grounding

This exercise is used to help promote presence and regathering calm.

Instructions

Before starting this exercise, pay attention to your breathing. Slow, deep, long breaths can help you maintain a sense of calm or help you  return to a calmer state. Once you find your breath, go through the  following steps to help ground yourself:

5: What are 5 things you can see around you. It could be a pen, a spot on the ceiling, anything in your surroundings.

4: What are 4 things you can touch around you. It could be your hair, a pillow, or the ground under your feet.

3: What are 3 things you hear. This could be any external sound. If you can hear your belly rumbling that counts! Focus on things you can hear outside of your body.

2: What are 2 things you can smell. Maybe you are in your office and smell pencil, or maybe you are in your bedroom and smell a pillow. If you need to take a brief walk to find a scent you could smell soap in your bathroom, or nature outside.

1: What is 1 thing you can taste. What does the inside of your mouth taste like—gum, coffee, or the sandwich from lunch?

If you want, you can do the 5 senses in any order, I would suggest keeping taste to the end unless you’re into licking a lot of stuff.

Have any thoughts, questions, suggestions, or comments on this article? Wondering how to this can be applied, modified, or adapted to your polyamorous, swinging, kink/ BDSM, or otherwise interesting relationship? Feel free to reach out to us here.